Chips From A German Workshop

I PO-I A

JLT.F.R,

PLin^|£ r:i L r::i nr tiii: i i ti k.-u l TI. .l

R E- ! S SLJ

V O I

LO Kf-MANs, O HE EN, AN D CO.

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39 PATE^bSTEtt ROW, LONDON

AMD EOH&AV

COLLECTED WORKS

OF

THE REGEiT HOR F* MAX MULLER
VIII

CHIPS FROM A GERMAN IVOR K SHOP

IV. ESSAYS ON MYTHOLOGY
ANE FOLK-LORE

IIIII u.h IIJ.IT, fllHTM' TW 1 latr-ctajn

RAMA VARUA R£GEj\TS3:1 INSTITUTE.

TRJCHUa. COCHIN STATE.

h cinKj,:-: ■sN^iSKaiifisi

CHIPS

naff a

GERMAN WORKSHOP

F. MAX MULLER, KM,

nanhflH riruri.p Dr TH" in^rw iirirsTL-.i

HE-IS53UE
VOL, IV

ESSAYS ON MYTHOLOGY AND FOLK-LORE

LONGMANS, GREEN., AND CO.

39 PATERNOSTER. ROW, LONDON
AKI> BOUSAY

RJ EL I own rn ,".'.4 / RO'TR

' 'j ip E'lilL/n, Vida, I ul. L LI, tive, iS" '.'V ^ ■ ^1; 4 l' n > SSv :

Yu]. IJ L, Sr.,. Su™u^i cHye i Vui. TV, \K&:t x±. iS T s

Xu vt V«l !'!•«■, ivirlb AiUiiiiiru, s Vain , Ck« Sim, ;

l:c-4:-,tiLkI ia Culif-aLcJ Eud5tj^>ii nr ]W. M i I i:r |, >i Vi r a Ira
Veil. I. Ju]>v iGyBf Yd II, .^iifii*f, 1^9 i
Vd Ill, iS>K ; V .1. ] V r Oiitnhcr, [AgK

PREFACE,

'I 1 HE articles, contai.n&d in tlbs volume art
* mostly concerned with Mythology and Polk-
lore in the widest sense. Though inauy of them
were published a long time age, it will be deen
that tli 6 alterations which I have made consist
mostly in corrections of mistake** and rniaprints,
suelt as happen Lo all of ua in the course of
a long library career, J should often have
liked to alter more, but, os I had to deal with
stereotype plates, this was nor, always e^y,

The general principles, however, which many
yuai's ago i laid down for myeeif m the treat-
ment of mythology liavs remained unaltered,
and malting allowance for the over-flotifidenoe of
youth, T can in my old age, and after carefully
considering all that has hewn said by c^hor
writers on the subject, accept nearly all the
theories oli mythology which I threw out in
the earliest days of my literary career, 1 am
t|iiite aware that views of mythology different

IV

FIEEAQE,

from my some of -which r ae I formerly

thought' had long been given up, have been
revived and defended again with considerable
learning end moat persuasive eloquence!- I my-
self have tele the persuasive charm of their
ndvocates, and 1 am far leas luolmed now to
say that, the viswh of those who differ from
me are altogether erroneous, Thie is per-
haps the most valuable lesson which advancing
yearn impress upon our mmds, that there are
few errors -which do not contain some grains of
truth. It m.ry &oeni at first ei^ht- very stnuige
that scholarE working on the same materials,
and all equally anri ous, St may fairly bo supposed,
for the discovery of truth, should have arrived
at such divergent, uot to say contradictory con
elusions as f.n tl lc origin and the true purport
of my fche-logy , But- after vr ate king th e coi if! ict. of
opinions for many years. T am at present rather
Inclined to sav. How could it. he otherwise ?

•if r

Mvthclogy is like an eiiortneue avalanche of
ancient thought that has carried down with
it not only mow and iee, but rocks, trees,
plants, and animals, nay, even many fragments
of hturnn handiwork. Tt is hut. seldom that
we art- able, to examine the deposits of such
an avalanche iu their entirety and, as it were,
fsi situ. In almost, all countries we find that
these glacial deposits have been carefully col-

FfltE'.At’.e.

v

Iflcted and arranged for li^j so a.s to he ready
for our inspeotiouj in ih& cabinet* of a. i.uij$<siinu
K nt h lug is more natural therefore than that each
explorer should have ids attention. attracted
by oue class of objects, mudo ready for hie
inspection, and closely connected with hia own
special studies. Ami thus it happens that while
one student nsaw in the avalanche nothing but
water, snow, or ioe^ another has eyes tor afconea
and sand only, while another again cares chiofiv
for tho remains of trees and animals deposited
in the moiain at the foot of a glacier. Dif-
ferent observers may therefore be led tofbenpon
different ingredients na m their cyea rhe most
important, and Hludents may assign difiVont
causes to the origin of an avalanche, nay, many
explanations may very plausibly bn put forward
as to the fufit impetus that carried it down if aid.
In the end. however, a more comprehensive
examination will lead to the conviction that the
principal elements of an avalanche are anow
and ice.

It is the same with mythology. We seldom
find mythology an it were in sitv* tie it lived
in the minds and in the unrestrained utterances
of the people. We generally have to study
it in the worts of m ythegrap here or in the
poems of Intea* generations, when it bad long
fitiiacsd to Le something living aod intelligible.

VI

T'ltr

The systematic duBsification to which most
myths have been submitted before they reached
u&, though it may be helpful in acme respects.
Is nevertheless as likely to be misleading JL3
a Jf’O'/'ius siccus would be to a botanist, if
debarred from his rambles through meadows
and hedges, "Nothing seems more natural
therefore than i.hac in examining the various
specimens of mythology, carefully collected ajid
arranged for their inspection, different ^oudenoa
should have felt absorbed each in his own
special department losing sight of the general
character of mythology and of the surroundings
in which it was formt^d,

If we keep our eyes open to survey not
only a portion, hut the whoJy of mythology,
we shall find that whatever detritus it may
ra-nv along, its original constituent element*
were icnrds and pftrems tdjout the most sinking
phen&m&na of nature, such as day and night,
dawn and everdngi sun and noon, sky, earth,
and flea', in their various relations to each other
and to man.

These gjitfw hakes of early thought soon
became hardened and changed into ice by
inevitable nrisundemamlinga, inevitable , 1 I say,
by cause, as we are now able to underHl.fj.nd,
they sprang from the very nature of language,
1 vd]. iv. p, TAB,

VH

whtm ones in the course’ of tradition words had
b&an deprived, of that intellectual heat which
from the iirst gave Lbern life aud moaning. It,
was the study of the Sconce of Hangings chat
led to the discovery of the inevitable character
of mythology, as a natural phase in the deve-
loping nt of thought, when once inca^iate in
wu i ds. If I may claim anything as my own,
it is this discovery that mythology is an old
and strange affection, not only of out thought,
but of our language also, an infantine disease,
aa I called it and call it still, inevitable, and.
therefore, though in vm icus degrees of intensify,
almost universal, 1

Mythology should in consequence La Louted,
as T have tried to treat it, however imperfect] y F ,
ns a chapter of the Science of Language, and
as a chapter of the Science of Thought, It
belongs to the Science of language, because
that ticiouM alone can account to ua for the
process which deprives noocs and words of Lheir
origirnd transparency and animation, making
them hard and solid, tiil by constant friction
they become mere pebbles* opaque and colour-
less, but for that very reason perbapa better
adapted for the issue and. the exchange of the
more abstract thoughts of later ages.

That the germs of decay are inherent in
1 Cfr>£ s', ™L Iv. pp, 537^3,

vm

pRKi’ACH.

language and affect not on ly the phonetic body,
but at the same time the significant sou] a ha of
words, is a fact that has been fully established
by the Science uf Tjuaguage, while it fell to the
Science of Thought to show how mi r wovda
constantly react cm our thoughts, and mould
them* nay, restrain and fetter them, till the
geuse of truth within us protests against
bo jug kept captive any longer, and casting off
the old festers creates for i;*elf new wings,
(strong enough for higher flights. The ravages
produced by misunderstood metaphors and by
the unrestrained away of Polpo fiymy and
Synonymy* have been shown no extend far
beyond the limits of what is usually meant by
mythology. It Eg most important to observe
chat the same influences which wo eeo at work
in ancient times in producing the stories about
gods and guddeSsw, heroes and heroines, pervade
nearly every domain of ancient and of modem
thought, nay, that even our own religion a.L:d
even our must modern philosophy are not quit/:
beyond their reach,

Some of tho words which we use most
frequently date from tho earliest period of
language and thought, and though they have
often haem defined and refined, they have seldom
been altogether freed from tho spell that be-
1 Chips, v*l. Ev, p, 7%,

IFrEFAftTZ.

IX

longed to them from the first, Take such
a word as t&rf&s, or Fruticb dim s ith its
Teutonic equivalent of God. True, it roasi^
no longer what was meant, by tha Ski., dev a,
or the Latin the bright agents of the

nkv, but it still if^nis to retain apnaethiiig of
its original meaning of a power residing in or
above the bright sky. Without thinking nr
knowing why. we still lift up our ayes towards,
the sky when looking for God, nay, till very
lately churches might, have bean seem crowded
with people who implored the Deity, a? the
V edits ffrjdils implored Tndm, to lend tha clouds
and to send down iuiu on the parohecE earth.
Though Christianity given ns a purer and
truer idea of the Godhead, of the of

His power, and the holiness of His will, there,
remains with many of us the conception, of
a merely objective Deity. God is at ill with
many of us in the eJouda, so far removed from
the truth and so high above anything human,
that in ttying to realise fully the meaning of
Christ's teaching we often shrink frum ap-
proaching too near to the blinding effulgence
of Jehovah. The idea that we should stand
to Him in. the relation of children to their
father seems to some people almost in-nvarenr.,
and the thought that God is near us every-
where, the belief than we are also His offspring,

FMJ?AjOF,

nay, that th.si'e has never been an absulute
burner between divinity and humanity, has
often been branded as Tantbuisrrir Yet Cnns-
tianrty would nut be Cbriy.tiar.iity without this
Hu-collcd Pantheism, and it is only some linger-
ing belief in something like a Jove-like D^is
Optimus Maximum that keeps the eyes of out’
tuind fixed with awe on the God of Nature
without, rather that] mat the LnUfch more avrfill
God of the soul within.

The influence of language on thought, otr r to
put It more clearly, tht* bifluasiue of uld and
petrified an new and living thought,, was 110
doubt more powerful in ancient than in modem
times. I believe that its silent but nTe&isdbio
power had been remgnised by Hindu philoso-
phers under the name of Aptn-vai-ana, i. e,
traditional speech, for which they actually
claimed the same authority (pram £« a) ae for
sensuous perception (p rs.t y a k e h a) and reasoning
(a it u no A n a), thus recognising ^hc fact chat. Like
the oyatsr, the mind has to live on in the shell
which iL has built fee 1 itself. It is curious how
tew among our modern philosophem have paid
proper attention to thia determining influence
of laugaflgft on thought, and how ape they are
to pass by questions ccnnected with L.t as teem
questions of words ; — they might :is wall say,
mere questions of thought I

si

We knaWj fyr instance, how important an
element in anwt thought or mythology is
that of /tfwWjmi iu Germ an Besvulung. W h y
was a soul ascribed to th# moon or to a river ?
The ordinary explanation amount a to no more
than that itwasso,antl that it was very [isiura],
B-n j w0 know now IEjjll. it w&a not onlv natural,
but inevitable, inevitable in the historical growth
of laxigpage, which wts in reality the historical
growth of ™r thought, The mom-, could onlv bt*
cal L^d or conceived by means of one of the pre-
dicative roots. And when the moon had been
called, far induce, M;L-h, Lbp measurer, from the
i'O&t m 4 to me&sara, it could only be a masculine
or a feminine, ibr neuters were a much Inter
invention ll/iots were all or nearly all ex-
pressive of oclLouh, — as a matter of fact, as
1 said, as a matter of necessity, its my friend
Noir^ added. lienee a river could only be
Called and conceived aa a runner, or a roarer, 01
a dcfandftr, and iu ail Lhese capacities always as
something- active and animated, nay, as some-
thing masculine or feminine. Hesica we have
fiver, from Latin rivus, and this from rho root
aru, Greek fiia, to run- wo have Skt. uadi,
river, from n&d r to roar ; we hive Bkt. eindhu,
river, from sidb. toward off, to protect, riven
being natural barriers and frontiers, at least in
ancient times.

riiLFACICr

Jlii

It has sometimes been supposed. that the
undsEit thinkers -and name-givers euppoaedthat
every river mu at- have a serai, because every
other runner had a soul. But such a roundabout
process ’would involve a rea.l Hystaron pratartiru
The very idea of soul ftfl ft predicaw belongs ro
ii much later stage of thought and had to he
elaborated by a long ami di (livid t pLocess. To
ascribe a ready-made soul to a piece of water
may be called very natural, bet it may with
thfl same right be called fdeo most unnatural
rmd violent- I fully admit that Animism is
the true key ta many secrets of mythology t but
the true key to Animism is language.

but although tlic ancient words* and phrases
about the great phenomena, of nature form the
fundamental stratum of mythology, although
Zevst and Jupiter no lees than Dyaus (maae.)
were originally no more than names of the eky
conceived as active at id therefore iis animated,
yet when the stream of mythology had once
been started, there ™ hardly anything that
appealed to the curiosity of primitive man that
could not be carried along by its waveg. Tt is
hy ignoring the immense capacity of mythology
iliat- students have been led to such different
conclusion*, derived from one or other of its
numerous ingredients. Sem* students hav&
though r- that all mythology is solar, Who

nil facl.

Xli:

that reads the Daily News of Longman-' &
Magmxne has not heard of fkilmr Myths \
They ha , vp served to fill jiago after page of
newspapers tmd jouraeJa from day lu day, Bum
week to week, foum month to month, from year
to year, r,i . at 5aat people have grown wellnigh
tired of solar witticism, That- there is hardly
a mythology withuat Solar Myths, who ■would
deny ? That there is hardly anything el ye in
mythology,, who would affirm ? Yet, beea-use
some of my earliest contributions to Com-
parative Mythology were devoted exclusively
to the special subject of Solar Myths, 1 [ hive
boon represented agair and again, even by
Mr, GrLadstone, as a Solarist, ns teaching that
the whole of mythology is wlat Suppose an
astronomer were to write a book on the sun,
would he be suppuaud ld have denied, the
existence of the moon and the stare? Would
other astronomere accuae him <jf ignorance,
and claim Jbv themnelves the credit of having
made the brilliant discovery of the moon and
the stars irt the sky? While 1 am writing
those lines, I read again in a daily papur, that
the theory of Solar Myths baa become un-
fashionable, I htj>B It. !iSver \vai i i finliicmable,
for nothing la ao apt to ruin any scientific
theory as ins being fashionable. We know
1 Seu Chips, Toi- iv. p. L j].

3iJV

rnEVJca

how Darwin's theory hia suffered from nothing
so much os from its Judins? heon, for a time
at least, extremely fashionable, Scientific
truth lias nothing to do with fashion r nor with
fljiyth lrjr Llia.t is purely personal. hf aim bard. tfi
mythological researches, both in his first and in
his second period, have never been fashionable,
hot they contained for all that some very
valuable truths, Because I did not say mind:
either for or against jVLmn bardts mythological
theories, I have been accused of wilfully ignoring
them or disapproving; of them. This won not
the case. I confess that they seemed to me
and still seem to me too exclusive, too much
confined to one portion of mythology only, and
w tibia was a portion which I had never
cultivated myself, I naturally abstained from
rushing into the day. Arm omnixi jpossmnws
ovirit3 r I saw it was hopeless for me to try to
rram a knowledge at first hand of innumerable
local legends and customs, still more to acquire
a scholar-like knowledge of Hottentot and Maori ;
and who would venture to deal with Hottentot
or Maori mythology without first acquiring such
knowledge, or without securing at least the
co-operation of those who bail acquired ft .

Thera is room for al] of us tn the immense
gold-fields of mythology, hath ancient and
modern* both savegu and ciuibed, both solar

IV

and lunar, Wu have read, of £oo]og{eft] and
botanical mythology, and we might bars
equally Useful works on astronomical, on reli-
piolia, L'my. even oii philoeopldcal mythology.
To me every new contribiiticn is welcome,, us
long - as \t is worked cut in an honest fend scbolar-
like spirit, -wliethsr it comes from Mnmiljordt,
from W. Uaidoz, Mr. I’maer,. ■.:■ l- from Mr. Andrew
Lang. Toes last writer has for many years de-
voted bifl great powtsra and bis able pen to
the popularising of the often difficult and autn-
pl ic uteri labours of Mannhardt and others, T
know that be bus n.lsn employed bis gift of wit
and fuoetLouajiess in criLtcismg opinions which
do not please him. But why not ? Ea knows l>est
jicj'a far aedioJar may go. and lies knows better
than anybody else that ridicule la nav^r need
ua an mpiiufint t.i . . every otheT argument has
foiled, He ccriujELly peo&e&aes far too keen a
sense o£ the humorous to imagine that all
opinions which do not please him or which he
boa possibly misunderstood ere vmo f(tct.o
wrong. He 1ms worked hard and be has suc-
ceeded in rousing a widespread interest in iblk-
lore, nay, T ana afraid be has even made it
fashionable ; but fur uJE that wo must not
forget Divsrsas div.tirsa.jivm.nL

That there hist-on cal ingredients also in

mythology who could deny after studying the

VOL. iv. b

JfV]

PREFACE-

Legend of Buddha the exploits of Heraklfia, or
the Saga embodied. in the iNibelungeriliud 1

That the worship of ancestors was drawn
Into the vortex of mythology ls shown clearly
enough by the fact that the spirits of the
deputed supposed to migrate to the West
or to the East, to the moon or to the sun,,
there to join the company of the Dev as, nay,
to assume themselves a .Dem-liko or divine
nature. Only it stands to reason that the
Devftu must have been elaborated first, before
the Pitris could. join Lliein and share in their
di vine attributes.

That philosophical ideas also found entrance
into the most ancient mythological pantheon
wha ah doubt after reading of Themis (Law)
ua the who : if Zeus, Lhe daughter of L'rctnos
and Gaia, and the companion of the Minrai
(fduuttsj, &tee) and the Three Sinters spinning
the threads of Imman life 1

Kor muM we forget that hare as elsewhere
demand created supply. An in out- own Lime
a taste for Zola's style has created an abundant
crop of Zblafisque novels, net only in France,
but. even in England, a testa for Homeric poetry
would naturally call forth ever so many llomoric

1 Ses Das 5w^H«yJ n’ff SddwciiiMtcr,

imd Hvyvfl rew I'jvfrjc, HtaC myttuAty/'sekt uJ«d kistori&iit
UtttcrzitL-kung w fVwJrifc Sander, Stockholm, 1690.

P&EFA0E,

x<;:i

bards reeking new Aristeias and describing now-
sieges nnd desoruntKTns of towns uti'cer the
patter tj of the Iliad.

IF, then, we un$ asked hew it i.s possible to
distinguish these secondary myths, whether
they ate co i luected Tf i !. i i ... rvsl i s \v ci-^jlr i p

of a iiaLioti, or a,rrfse from phOijEophical specula.’
Lions or, finally, are the result of mere pooticsd
imitation, from the original stratum nf physical
mythology, it must he confessed that in many
nflse^ this is extremely difficult. There are in
fact many questions in tha Science of Mythology
■which cannot he answered at present, and which
possibly may never Ire answered ; but that is
no reaenn why we should give up the attempt
of answering aome of them at. >Hst.

The most value. ble aide which wo possess for
deciphering the ancient monuments of mytho-
logy fiLyim>li:gy, OimhiLry. And pnythuldgy.
Every one oi' i heee level's hers been used with
great effect, and we ha^e had in consequence
three methods m* school h uf mmpanitiva mytho-
logical research , the Ethnological or Genealo-
gical, the Artalogical or Comparative, and tire
Psychological The third is sometimes called
the Anthropological or fithnapsycfok/giiicd
(V^erp9$ch$hgie) . l

If we can analyse the name of any god or

1 fihftwxi X-ccfoi'ei-, if- p r
b a

1 1 1

rnr.fAflfi.

bare etymologically, a great step is made
towards discovering his original character.
If, after we have perceived a general similarity
between gods or heroes as described in the
Veda- and as known to Homer, we diftcovar Lliat
they shared their I'.nmcs i]i common, making
allowance only lor phonetic changes, a new
light seems suddenly to burst over the dark
picture of the distant pint which w« ant trying
to understand. No one who Las not worked
butmfcdt In this fiehl can imagine the joy of t he
disco venex, can uuderato.Tid tl ie difference it. makes
to him when he thus fools the ground safe under
bin feat. I can only describe it as something like
the relief which one experiences when meeting
an acqtiH,intftnCB niter many yanra, and feeling
convinced that one has seen the face before,
though, trying in vain to recollect his name.
As soon a?* he tolls ue bin mtine, wo know [he
man and nil .about him, and neither strange
■wrinkles nor white hair car. prevent our recog-
nising our old tfieiid.

That Vara?® reminds us of Quran* or Qura-
noe of Vanajia la quite true. Still, this ia very
diiTsient fiom. saying that the birthplace or the
original concept or naming of the two was the
same. But when we find that the name of
Vajuaa can ho tritccd back to the root va.r,
which means to ooverj to surround, and which

i ; R-:F^nT;

aa a name of the sty must in Sanskrit have
meant eh.* covering sky, just n-: th© Skt, name
of a cloak, var-utrii, meant a covering garment ;
and if we find that thin mime oan lit Greek lie
fepreeeucted by Quranaa, we feel that we are
standing on firm ground. Both Vanina and
Ouranos moat have been names of' the same
mythohigiciLl concept* names of the covering
*ky, whatever changes happened in inter limes
and in difierent oeuimtriBS*

No evidence is older, or can be older, than
the evidence of language. I believe it has been
fifod that etymology ia. often u r. certain, and that
comparison has aiunetimfie pro veil misIemliTig.
Dees not the same appiy m an ever, higher
degree to the deciphering of Baby Ionian and
EgvpLm'i l n script! on Rj of Yedic hymns and
:Vvcstio Githas ■. i^i.y, to ©very branch of science
that is not absolutely stagnant l Does it not
apply even to Physical Sciences which like to
call themselves exact. ! Dorn not Weisiaann
differ from Darwin " Wore Lord lielvin and
Huxley always agreed* even oil facts and
figures? Etymologi es allow at all events ftf
Argument : me can produce our tcnaoiiG for or
against an etymology, wo are not obliged to
submit to mere authority. Those who cannot
form an opinion for th era & elves would naturally
keep aloof. Kor would any mythologist trust

psrricu.

EE

in etymology and comparison by themselves,
without looting for further kelp ^nd confirma-
tion, It would not be enough, for instance, to
prone tbit Yai'uns means the coverer, and
that Ida name mm*!; very near to Oursmitf,
unifies it could be shown at the same time that
w hat is told of those two deities contains real
true? a of a common origin and of the same
original conception,. No one double that the
Greek Oura-ncw moans the wide over-»rehiii£
(or'pctnos- tvpi\ viftpOcr) sky, the 1 l iiHiOjii'Ljd ot
the Kuj'LIi. H&riod says that; the starry Oum-
nos was meant to cover everything (Theog. v.
I2?] t aiid that he was rJao eSo? the

form seat of the gods. Almost the efline c-xpms-
sioi. is used in the Riggyeda, where (YTTT 41,
we read of the dhruvim si dan V d:u7ias ya,
the Jin u sea’, of Vanina As to Vanina, his
character in the Veda baa been tar more
developed in ail ethical sense than that of
On ratios, who holds a very ineagnifocant posi-
tion in Greek mythology,

Yamftft contained the germs, which "m the
A vesta, developed into the purely spiritual and
ethical deity Ahuramasda. Nor would it be
rig] it to say that evidence of this spiritual
el i aiueter, aL least in iLs beginnings, was alto-
gether absent from the Veda. In thy Rlg-veda
Vnra?Ea more than any other god Influences

the MTLtiCLwnt^ ami rales tbs hearts of bis
TCErshippera. Ev$n in later times., when Tie
had become the deity of the West c.nti of the
enters, he is Sometimes called simply Pra/ketas,
the wise (VJahrtu Fur, ed. Hall, Y r @S)j while
the Buddhists call him Mauasvin,, spiritual.
In the Hig-veda, V. 35 , we read that Y&niiia
spread mil. the air in the forests, that 1 1 h placed
strength in the horses., milk in the -sows, marfmii
in the hearts, Agni In the waters, Bury a (tmi) in
the sty, and Soma (moon) on the rock,

Jf every deity must have a physical sub-
stratum, what other substratum can he found
for Yarum except the ovar-atehing i&yl
If the sun is called the eye of Vanina, what
ca.n Vanmn he but the skv? If sun and

1/

moon are called t.ha fins^eaEng bright ayes of
Vanina, what can Vanma be but the sky?
True the sun is a.lao called the eye of Mitva
and Yartima, hut this is due to the dualism
which, according to the Vedie posts^, pervades
the whole of nature., and which finds expres-
sion, as I have ebinvu elsewhere, in savers!
of the divine pairs of Vodic gods, in what 3
called. Correlative Deities. 1 lu these divine
couples one of the two often stands for the
other, nay the two are often expressed by the
name of one of them put hi the dual, We may

1 of Lanfmage, £ 1 . £07 3 ^

ItXjj PltEVAOE.

fefcilJ perceive, however, that when Mitra and
Vanina sire invoked together- — and th &y avo
most frequently invoked together- Mitre ie
the bright half or the day, Varljua the dark
half or the night.

Thao Vamfia was conceived as tho pod who
covers the earth as ji- i L oot' covert n house, may
still be perceived in some verses [Aoharva-veda,
IX. 3, IS) which were need In ooEisecrating
il house. Here the roof mode of and

covered with etrftw is likened to the night as
covering tbs world, while the opening of the
house in Lhc morning Is described in the
following words — ■ Wbet YsxuFia has firmly
closed, Mitre shall ojpen ox, early mornd

Though Vai'uwa may aorae times share in the
bright character of Mitrfl, yet it is he who
■ maktv black the things that were bright ' (VI J l\
il, 10); and even when he is said to have given
birth to the aim, this might well Ire an id of the
dark night from which the rising sun emerges.

In some of the a e ation- etc ri ea of chc Poly-
nesians anti Melanesians - we are told that in
then boginaing the sky and the earth wore torn
asunder violently by otis of the gods who
generally represents the sun. During the night

4 Atfmrta vnZn, tnuishHwI by <3 rlRlcia, voJ. l p 43 F.

* Cty pff, voL iv. p. 31L Eeq.] Sucuirt, du Miitkifia,
p. 314+

' i'- I Cl

xvii'

the sky whs supped to be lyirjrv- ou the earth,
sothfit earth and sky could nob be distinguished,'
It was the miner gun which seem ad to separate
the two and to bring- everything into night. In
the darkness of the night what is not £^u is as
if it not] and thus the daily recurriiig

event ot the wend becoming manifest by the sun
was changed into the myth of the earcli being
created by the lighL of the sun (Jlv. V. 83 , r>f

Ws road in the Rig ved^VLTOpl/thafe Heaven
jsnd Earth IiheI Ijeen Separated (v feta bhifce) by
Varum, and in I. f)0j the poet says: c A_gni
with Ids brilliant light has created (a^anayat)
heaven .and the waters,' This Agni, eke light,
is sometimes called the son of Dyaim, bub the
same Agni is also said {1. 2 if, 2 ) to havu by hie
brilliant, light created, that is revealed, Dvaus,
his own father. If then mythologically the
Varum of the Yedio poeti and the Qui'ams
of Hesiod are elenr-Iy akin, we bare now to
approach the question whether their names also
can be shown to be to ail intents and purpa. 4 cs
identical.

The equation V is one of the

oldest discoveries in Comparative Mythology,
and has had the support of the most eminent
scholars, both from a phonetic and from a
mythological paint of view. It. ought not there-
fore to have bean eat aside with a esftir leger.

XXI V

PH E FACE.

Everybody would admit that what we expect in
Sanskrit hi Varama*. not Yanina. Dut even
tfjuii,, it is well knowi that in the Uri&dL-g&tras
Yaran£ is actually given os a pars 11 el form
with exactly the same meaning as Yrtrima in
TIL E3. 1 We know fci.m little as yet of
Sanskrit- literature, and more particularly of
local dialectic fortns, Lo feel justified in sotting
aside such evidence as of no consequence. The
disregard of the authority of native grammarlMifl
baa been severely punished of late, and i t. will
hardly be euggarted. that the old Stitmkrtt
wished to lend, ilia support by anticipation to
our mythoJogsml equation.

Due evert if this dialectic form hail altogether
vanished, it has been shown J by Dr, Julius von
Fisrhmgcr that, Ydnins as well ns Qupa^may
he traced back to a fundamental form ^varvTia,
in Greek FopFavas, Dorse (ipatcifj in Htanakrit
vilrum That var may appear in Creek as
ovp ie proved by a$ptw=* Fvpoe, ft watcher, by
oZpovi water. Zend vdrv, Skt. viri ; by ovS&tp
(Doeotic), Old High G P waxsar\ and in Greek
itself by such forma as ouXm* Act. dXnt (ukGu).

Tt is useless to- ask whether ia Bftnakrit
Varan a was weakened to Var U ns* as Darme-

1 UnXJii-Bdtias, II. 7<, Vmwo VuMIW vrietuihliedas
?.i : Yaruwo dikpatau texan.

* Kultn'4 Zeitwhrtft, skvil, p, 476,

PTtErACE.

XXV

atet&r supposes, but the socenta seem to show
that the two words wore formed independently.
I hope these few facts may induce our sceptical
friuiidH to be more foopfcic&l and d 'cunispect Jit
future. We se« in such worde ns dharami and.
dbaruita tha t both an a. ^od u na vnert used side
by side for derivative purposes.

Thyra are cases where we have mythological
mimes identical in sound or nearly so. and
where nevertheless we cannot admit that the
rryd 6 who bear these names watc identical in
origin, This applies particularly to namee
occurring lu Lingiingea which tire not cognate-
is a name of the nun in Polynesian diaksetfl
and likewise in Egyptian , 1 but no One would
think that the two are gen e nl ogi cal Ly or ina-
tancaily connected. The Mtna applies to the
Polynesian Mavu-, wind, and the Vedic M amts,
the storm-gods, ft. if even in cognate languages
similarity, nay identity nf fiarne, does not always
prove the identity of the objects uutiied. The
Aveetic V arena fr&thrugaoeha has been
compared with the Yedic Varunn, katura.mi
or ^aturnnika. The phonetic similarity is
complete between Yanina and Farenos, Bet
Varena is simply the name of one of the goad,
countries, the fourteenth, created by Ah lira'
masda- It has been identified with a moun-
s t'Ayia va] s iv, l), $03.

XXVI

FILS FACE.

taiiuotia country south of the Caspian Sea, or
Daiktm. Thurt :a nothing mythological about
it, except Lh.it Th rartao':w was bom tbera who
defiled t Jj e evi] s-iiiit Azki Ikih6.k&- Dfljme-
steter therefore o&hs this Y ai'&na very happily vn
V&runct enc&i'e matfaiali and be translates tho
Daevas Vai'enya by 5 a l^duc? ovpdvtoi v kw d@nwnx
qui s'dmpamn.t da del-.

There are on the other side gods- with
different names thut eau nevertheless be proved
Lo Lava bacn in their origin identical- I liave
beard at least do valid objections to the
identification of the Yudin Varuno. with the
Avg&tic Ahvi-if, proposed long ago by Both
find Dfuineateter* 1 The equation of the Yedic
Jfzfna*- Fdi’Zfflixu and the Avestic Mdhra-Ahura
seems sufficient to silence all eriticimL

The A sura Yaruft&j, a*. DarmestetaF points out
(p, 68), has the sun for bis eyes, so hag Ahura-
rutbvla ; Yamnn's son is A t liar- van, the son of
Ahuramazda is AtQe?i the wives of Yarujia
are the waters, the same is the case with
Ahura ] Yanina forms, a D vand v a. or couple
with Mitra, oo does Ahum with Mithra. Still
the east is a peculiar one. A An™, Sfct. A aura,
is n,n epithet rather than & name of Yanina in
the Yeda. In the A vesta Ahura in Ahum-
maziki has become a name, and is no longer
T Dmaesteter, Qiiwiitl jjLfcjitHHK, p. EC.

PE-HFACr.

a mot# epithet, I3ut there seems to ha/v* been
Tio break, the concept of the deity pvese r viner
lcs continuity in the Veda and in the Avestii.
In toat senes therefb-m we nmy aav l.hni the
Tadic Varuam is the Avestic Ahum,

Lastly, we have to admit that. in spite of the
greater accuracy of phonetic laws, it ie some-
ttmaa irapossible to s&y from which of two or
even more roots a mythological name ham been
derived. Ah it would be difficult on purely
phonetic grounds h> determine whether ttc^-
rro/wii LB derived from 4>uh> a? ot ^ it would
be impossible to decide whether such. a noun as
flew™ or Tot ip was derived from the root v a 5 ,
to dwellj aa a kind of Yisto&hpati, 1 or tWim
vas, 30 shine, from which vistu, dawn, meaning.
VP.5U, bright, fcc,

ag^n, as the wife of Ze us, may be
traced back either to yv-ar, sky, avftrfc = Hera,
or to vasi i, from vat^ Lo shine.

A E-tiU stronger oaRe is that of Fo j l s and
jPV’tiAiWt, which, as 1 have tried to show, oiav
be derived equally well from the root bhar, to
carry, and from the root ghar, to shine. In
cases like these the mythological evidence
alone cam snahlfi us to decide between the
two possibilities!, and in our case that evidence

1 C:“. Vastya, a dwfclUnjj, mjmI resfi-birfai?n, whi^li. Slsis

natlii n£ to do vlqL realjdJVHiw 4c,

jLuviil

PRS-PijflE.

is so strung that the more plausible derivation
of Fort fro m ftrre will have to be given up.
Nothing would be a, greater cjLta Lake than to
imagine that because there are phonetic diffi-
culties, whether real or apparent, in identifying
mythological names in ditiTerftnt Aryan langnagea,
therefore the deities bearing finch names have
nothing in common. Considering the phonetic
ravages l.o which proper names have been ex-
posed in r.l ] languages, in is ex tiM^n rdinary that
the names of gods and heroes should on Lhe
whole have resisted phonetic corruption so
well.

That Votes, the demon destroyed by Endra,
and Ortkros, the demon destroyed by Herakl&s,
were originally the BamfijOiight never to have been
doubted. To say that the o of Orthrc.v la wrong,
ib to ignore Schmid L's sixth rule of assimilation,
v]z. that instead of ap, a a, pa, and a a, there ap-
pears in ordinary Greek op Or oV, as represen ting
a Sk. ri or low- toned form of original or eh T1 lo
pro ri won that v or . r u should Follow' directly or
separated by consonant*!, is hardly justified, lor
the evidence is very 1 imi ced. and wt* find not only
opVvpi but also opeupQj 6pa‘ttrf$tfs i we find not
only SpSii. which is no longer do be derived from
£Lrd liva or Zand eredhwa, ctrduus, but likewise
"OpSia. But even if there were a slight vocalic
anomuly, the material evidence far the- common

FftEFACE.

origin of VritTB. and tfj’iAnc.? would bft strong
enough to counter balance it,

TliELfc jd th4&f} waa originally & goddess of light,
particularly of the morning light- or the dawn,
would rHUL&iu true, even if it could be proved
than the h in A liana is what is called palatal
or assibi luting, and admits as its Greek repre-
sentative ^ only, and not (h But it Eh wall
known, or it ought to bo, tliac r,hare was a period
when the final h of roots like ah wna m yet
undetermined , and varied incoiaeequenjtse between
gh, dh, wild bb- Thus we find nub, nabh, and
nadh ; grab, gmhhj and gradh ; g&h, g&hh,
and gudh, T If it uillj be shown, t her sib re, that
the root e. Li has actually developed in. one or
other of the principal Aryan dialects a dental
final, the question is settled, The rout, all, as
ve see in :Uia cOmpaTted with aha a, expressed
originally, like the root hbii, the oognaty unnoapts
of sliiidng forth and speaking forth A In the
second, sense it appears in the old perfect It Em,
and it there tSiEoLoses its final dental in it^ha,
so that Ftaiini, Till, 2 r 35, actually teaches
the substitution of fl,th for ib, Darmestefer
want still further, and trsLciug the same root in
afcb-ar, fire, Zend rif-ojv, ho derived the name
of Ath-ena From It, though ii‘. a differouL seiiso.

1 Scicjux 0 / ? 7 ?.i-itL,yjj i, p. 3GS.

* Sea Urugmii n o, Grieth. Etymnlogim, s -39.

KXX

OESrACE.

T allude liore to those cuse3 in passing only,
because some of my friends have expressed
tbeir dissent I Intve discussed tbemj how-
ever, far more fully in u work not yet re:My
for publication but which I hope I may live
to finish. For the present what 1 have said
miirtt H-iffiee to show that 1 was not unprepared
for those purely phonetic objections which are
m easy to raise, but so difficult to substantiate.
I ana too old and. too much occupied to bn able
to answer every objection that may be raised
in journals and newspapers, and it was from
no want of respect tbac I declined to answer
theiu. Nor am I frightened by tbo often-
repeated cry 1 Again tho dawn P— • Yes, Again
the Dawn! And wliy not? 1 like to avail
myself whenever 1 can of the admissions of
those who do not agree with my theory of
mythology, and what stronger agreement with
my own views of the omnipresent Dawn could
I have wished for than that of Professor Bouton,
who in his 'Myths of tho New World/ p„ 01 f
says : ‘ When the day begins, man wakes from
bis slumbers, faces tbs rising sun, and pray a
The EasL la before him. . . There is the starting-
place of the celestial fires, the home of the sun,
the womb of the morning, It represents in
Space the beginning of things in time, and as
the bright and glorious creatures of the sky

THEPace,

SKTfl

cnme forth thence, man conceits that his
ancestors ! l. 1 Fin- in L’CJnote agts wmndaryd from
the Orient ; "there ill the opinion of many in
both Lhe ukl smi t l-j e. new wcirlri was the el-ad!*
of the race ; them in Aztec lagnbrj was the
tabled land of TIap&ll an, and tli^ wind from
the East was called tho wind of Paradise.
Tlaloeavitl, . , As the Hawn brings lights and
with light are aflHyoiated in every human mind
ths kl-Ass of knowledge, safety, protection,
majesty., divinity, as ic dispels the spectres of
; light, as it defines the cardinal points., and
brings forth the. sun and the day, it occupied
the primitive mind to an as tent that coil
hardly lie mag=iified beyond the truth. It is
*Ji fact the central figure, in moat
j •el igions*

If it had not been fin the occurrence of such
MfijFica.n names a a UfapriEftm and Tlalocuvitl
1 should have thought, the whole of this para-
graph was a quotation from some of inv own
works ■ find yet I have been told that acithra-
liologLsta lilt* Professor BriutoJi fu'id others have
completely knocked Lha bottom out of my
system of Comparative Mythology. 1 could
not wish for letter opponents, At all even is,
in spite of all that has b*an written against
the etytiiologicEii or genealogical school of Com-
parative Mythology, 1 still remain true to it, nor

VQIr. iv, c

stcxii

PREFACE-

have 1 been deserted by &uv sdbelsrB who are
able ro farm an independent. opi ruon on the V edit,
the A ventit, the Homeric poams t or the Ed da.

With such names ob Bopp, Bunion f, Benfey,
and. Pott amon^ the ancientBj and DarmggtHter,
il ichel Br&d , von Brad he, Olden ljorg, Elootniielrl „
and Victor IJemy among the present generation
to support ine, the time has not yet cocao to
strike our flag. I feel, ns I always have, the
strongest sympathy lor that more coin prehen-
sile spirit which ani mates tha analogical and
ethnologies] schools of Comparative Mythology,
Still T always feel qualms of conscience when-
ever I dabble :n the folk-lore of p&opl& whose
] angoages I have not studied. Every scholar
knows, the mistakes which we arc liable in.
Analysing Vedir^ Avegtic, Greek. Roman, and
Teutonic mythology. Yea here we are dealing
with languages r.bat h&va been studied for cen-
turies, and to which we ourselves bava devoted
a considerable portion of our lives. Who, then,
with the smallest remnant of a scholar's con-
science would venture to speak confidently
of iU»tw F Michabo t Tlapallan or

Tfofako.virt, J-Jineimitspo or
Rartgi 1 However 1 have no doubt that
future folkdorista will not shrink from the
arduous labours necessary to enable them to
speak with authority, and T fully admit t-hftt.

VHEFiCE.

XXZiiil

taken eti •:'ria$$g ? the aiinfleTitjes between the
folk- lore of people the meet heterogeneous pro-
duce even now n certain eJJect, Wo ran not
help itolnig- that when the r*ame apparently
irrational stories are bold in the Arctic nud the
Antarctic regions, in Kidheim and Muspcll-
beim, they cannot Ini quite irrational, and we
feel encouraged to look fbr some rational
Motive in both. It' that motive turns, cut to
be due to our common human nature, the
ethnological method Resumes quite a new in-
terest, find may in time load to very important
results* If these who follow the eitbnologioalj
or what Mr* A. Lang cidls the Hottentotie
method, -would only he outspoken and say- la each
when they compare Hottentot and Greek
myths, whether they look u[>on rhe similarities,
such as they ore, as fhft result. of our common
human nature, or as due to an early coermimiity
of language or, lastly, as produced by mere
transference in historical times ! Th wm-lil then
be possible to examine the facts and to arrive
at really valuable cone! agio™. But this is
hardly ever done. As Mr, A, H-tug, howflyei 1 ,
has Limned the held of controversy bet ween
himm lf and Mr, Taylor by pointing ant L six
daeaes of myths which can be shown to be
survivals o£ the ege when the ancestors ol

3 Acdttew#, lfiS*. Fate,
c ?

XSXEV

PREFACE-

the Greeks wore still savages and cAnnibnls,
let n a examine each of these classes and see
how fit* Lite Hottentotic method is t o ally supe-
rior to the Genealogical In helping- us to under-
stand the in. Evan before Lliat challenge was
given I bad been informed that my etymo-
logical explanation of the Daphne myth as
a Dawn myth w as uncalled -for, beenu^: of the
well -known belief of savage trilws tha* men
and woman can be changed into animals and
trees. I fwk once more. How does that help as
to account for the change of Daphne into
a laurel 1 When vie compare Greek and San-
skrit mythology, our object is Hot only to find
out. similarities, but., if possible, to explain them.
Simply to say thjit Lbo Hottentots also believe
in the metamorphosis of human beings into
Silj[llluLh and trees does not help its a step
beyond the fact, known U> all of us, that the
Greeks do the saioe- Bot if two people do the
same thing, it does not follow that it. is the same
thing, till wo know why they do it. Unless we
can show why the Hottentots, came to believe
these metamoiphoses we are only explaining
ijyriotfwm jdi-t ifjnrif.utii. Wo should bs dealing
with curiosities only, not with facts of scientific
value, A large number of stick similarities, of
change i of hu man beings into animals, trees, and
anything else, have been collected by Chinees

sbesace.

writers , 1 Lui I -iloubt whether, mim-sroua and
curmusi a^ they are, they would help ns muola
Let ns now examine one by one Mr, A. Lang's
six critical pr.mit.iH

I. The belief of the New Zealanders hi one
god swallowing another ia supposed to throw
light uu Kuooos swallowing hie children.
Granted that tbo swallowing atoiy may be
illustrated, from New Zealand sourppg ; but taur
it be explainer: by them ? 1 If wa could dis-
cover a key in New Zealand to unlock the
Maori myth, and if thjit hey fitted the Kronos
myth film, we should pill lie delighted. Till
then, we can only say that there is a. rusty lock
in New Zealand, acid a maty Lock in Greece,
and that surely is Terr small comfort There
arc many kinds of ffwftUowing in ancient
mythology. In India the moon is not only
swuJ lowed., but actually disgorged again by
Ralm. Even in our own time we nan hear
such expressions as that the eini drinks, i, e.
swallows the water or tho dew of the meadows,
chnt darkness swallows the light, that die -?ea
swallows the rivers. Every one of these dif-
ferent kinds of swallowing ought have become

5 Set) Sitmxffslcrielitt nJe - Kais&l Akadtntk far fFTjwen-
seJiaJIai !j; H'iejL 13"]. July; Phizmaiar, Zw Gtschiuhfc
ifer jp, Gifi. Van, dan

1 See FrofsuMj? La Mtfhe fa ffflaniWj ifiSG.

3CXXVL

PlfcErfcCR.

mythologised in the East or in the Wo fit. But
if w r e lead of a special ease like that of Zeus
or Pdops or 7Viw./r£^is TI S we gain no help
from all cheae analogies, whether from Mew
Zealand or from AfnesL In Greece we are
told that the gods did not lii.ts to swallow
Pelopa, even after he had been cooked for them.
Demote!’ only ate his shoulder, but afterwards
the body was put together again, and os the
shoulder was lukalng, It had Lu be replaced by
i very, Hence Pelopa humero msigfds pJruma.
He nearly, though not altogether, shared the
fhije of bitj grandfather Zeus, and is, likE him,
called Kroihfifl. 1 G&nnibalifiiTi geer-e. in fact,
to have been hereditary in this jfarn LI y, for
Atreus too had Tantalus II, the son of his
lirothe r Thyest-ee, cooked, and persuaded Lin?
father to a&t his son, How does a swallowing
story from Auatralia help u* to explain those
terrible Greek myths l If it i s any help to
anybody to- ray that the Greeks when they
formed the myth of Kromoa or Tantaloa must
still have been cannibals. nay, must bare been
in the habit of cooking tuiJ eating their chil-
dren 3 l: t it be so - who could prove that it w&s
not bo ? But Oven then we should have ex-
plained half Lhu myth only, the swallowing
part, while for the disgorging process we
1 Pindar, £ff, iii 4l r

PHET’ACE,

should probably have to appryd to n. still wore
primitive race of savages.

If, The d ascent oi' Creek families, frun: Zona
under various forma and disguises is to lie
explained in future by a reference to TofemiJin
ov Otemism* Let it be so, but let us know
first iu what sanao Totamism m here uaed-
I have shown on a farmer oecaeiou that in lU
real sense, as used by the lied Indiana, an Qfem
io t^ap relented by something ike a signpost. aL
tlifl entrances of different, clans or acttleraenta,
it is generally, though by no means always, an
animal. Such an animal became the sign or
ensign of a clan: the members of such a clan
defended it. in wae', regarded it in consequence
as sacred, and in the etid claimed it ns their
very leader, or s? their ancestor- A .1 t.liiw is
perfectly human and intelligible. Is or would
fray body deny that what happened in North
America may have happened in GTftflee ; hut
beyond this we cannot go. Though there may
have bean Greek families supposed to Ik de-
scended from Zeus {Aujyejietj}, the rtaaKOny for
such a belief need not- have been the same,
We know how many redone there were for
it in Greece itself A.nd it is curious bo observe
that the descendants of Leda, were never called
Swami, nor those of Eunopa Btdh, nor those ot
D&nae Gold-sho were. The Arcadians chained

raxviii r^xFACE,

Zem as their ancestor, but they never «-
shipped Zsus fm * beiki-. It wa* Sallkto, the
rm-jtber of Arhas., who was believed to have
been changed into a ahe-bear, after ftbo bad
givt!ii birth to Arkas. IF we like to believe
tl mt the Amadians bad a bear for their Otem,
by all means ; but W® know, of course, that
they might have been so called for ir.aoy other
reasons alec. Tlad the Dukes ot Anbalt-tlenL-
hurg a boar for their Otem ? Had the Grdni
a similar ancestor % I f the Havana or Cfcitti
^srere called cats, bad they -h tekne 0tem ^
Did the Fijians abstain from eating oats,
and did the Jews at, a very airly time warship
a pig as their Totem, became they abstained
from eating pork J In its strictly scientific
sense, Qtemtein exists in Korth America only.
If we Site to use the word in a more generfll
sense* we must say to, and define it accordingly,
That was the reason why I thought it useful
to work out the cxyiuol ogioai, i, e, the origbird,
meaning of Totem or Qt&nii and thifc, I believe,
has proved more useful than any r .umber ot Otem
stores, TVe must never forget that there were
many sacred animals which never were O terns,
and that thar&nre many tiibcs called by animal
names who never knew what an Otem means.

III. Stories such as chat of Cupid and
Pfi/rAfj of Urvafil and Pururavas, aie in

future to be explained, wa are told, by tin?
infintigement of a t&Fjoa Here Again, we have
f.n point, out that a taboo if? hardly a oflUTWst
name for every kind of prohibition, Prcliihb
ttonw have many causes The prohibition put
by Bluebeard on his vdveij is hardly to l>e
tailed a taboo, "The condition that Urva.tl
should disappear wh^nev&r she had wen her
husband naked arises from thy natural reason
that the Dawn vanishes when Lbe anu throws
of? th e garments of tsbo morning clouds, just i*k
by tuiotber Vodia metaphor the Dawn is said to
expire as hoqti as the sun begins to breathe.
Such conditions i.atnuot properly he ratlled
taboos, they spring quits as often from the
hnonlodgu of mevi table coiifiequenees. The
story of Cupid and Pafr cAe, however, seem s to
me to lie entirely outside the enchanted circle
of popular mythology, il. is rather a philoso-
phical myth, and much more recent than the
stories of Kronas and Zeus. Besides, even a
taboo has generally a reason, and Hottentot! c
scholars should at least try to discover it, and
not be satisfied with a mere name,

TV, We are told that anthropologists alone
can Lell uh why [ire \vu,h everywhere stud to be
stolen. It- may be so - but if they have dife-
eovered that the thief of Some was simply
a thief of fine,, or that the bird was a fire-eater.

P3BFACI-'.

Kl

they ought to let uf3 have the foots which
might perhaps help to settle the controversy
on the original character of Ho lb a now earned
on between Professor Hdlebrandt And Professor
Qldcnberg.

V, We are told that myths of Hades and
the Home of Una Dead axe found all over the
world, and that the lowest savages possess
theories of HolL It would be strange* indeed,
If they did not. The really intimating point,
however, is the creation of tl Lose hells., and ohoi r
marked diversity in different parts of the world,
Eflrtjh country seems to have itn own pet hell,
and few people would like to exchange their
own tor anybody else’s, whether it is a hot. hell
in warm, or a cold me, in cold climates.

YT, Myths of the origin, of death Ape likewise
said to be universal, and we can hardly wonder
at it, for death is very inns verbal. Death may in
! 5 om# countries be supposed to be due to a
broken taboo, to witchcraft, to the earing of
an apple, or bathing in m forbidden pond. ^es F
but doss all this explain the arrows of Art&llis
or of her brother Apollon l

What is really interesting in the conceptions
of death among different races, whether civilised
or uncivilised, is not eo much their general
agreement as the diflorsncee and the caused
which gave rig® to each individual myth.

FELZAOK.

xJi

So much fat the six s irong points of e!ia
tmtlipopologie study uf mythology, Everyone
of them, T am most willing to admit, ecu: tains;
some truth, and the syetoui, if eaten J ly worked,
ns it 1ms been, for instance, by Mr. Fumor, oais
produce Ji.Lid han produced very valuable results.
The danger begins whan ib Is rept wanted as
* {lie ordy solvent of mythology >'ti all ■pai'lsi qf
Jhc world* Thot it certainly us not. Much
as I iswf to the learned works of ftafltholiu,
Khunm, Waltz, Tylor, Bastion and others, sd
tar as mere facts &rft concerned, we must nover
forget that what the Science of Mythology &
aiming n.L is the discovery of the Ugponom, the
thoughts underlying every myth.

Ammonites su.d Belsumitos had been eob
lectsd from many parte of the world, su li. L thou
sumilaLrities could eaca.pt nn geologist. Bu: not
until their organic nature had bean discovered,
not till the Ammonite had been recognised at
a petrified, cephalopod and the Eelemnite as
the petrified shell of another eaphslopod, did
tho^e curiosities emuimo o scientific interest.
Let ant hro-p ol-o gin t a collect as many myths as
they can. If they do it wKiwieutiously, like
W. W. GUI, Callaway, H, Hale, Hahn and
otl-.orfl, with, a mil knowledge of the language
jil which the myth^ are handed down, their
labours will bo most useful and help us in the

.PiL LFaCS,

ill]

end to real isy our highest object, namely, to
disc ever reason in all the unreason of mytho-
logy, and thug, to vindLcaT.e the character of om-
anccstors, however t l ist&nt.

This i& the true charm of the Science of
Mythology, this the only p^uuse why serious
study Lila. do vote their time Lo a study which Lo
many seems childish and useless. I have been
blamed myself for wasting my time on mytho-
logy, All I tan -say is that this study gives
ime inter-isa pleasure, and has been a real joy
to my all my life. 1 have toiled enough for
others ; m&y l not in the evening of my liie
follow my awn Lasts ? I km much move in
mythology than appears on the an if ace, and
I believe the time will come when this is Fully
understood. And although I sun glad to havt-
lived long enough to witness the triumph of
some theories which. When first uttered, were
widely and fiercely condemned, I hold to my
old belief, that 'Truth is in no hurry. T there-
fore tab* courage to send out these old cor. Lribu-
tions to Comparative Mythology once more,
in the hope that they may find new friends,
and. that those who am not yet convinced by
nay arguments may fentinue to criticise them
in the game spirit of fairness and with the same
pure love of truth which most of my critics, and
certainly the roost, teamed and judicious among

racPAOK.

xlilj

them, h ei ire always displayed. In this way
alone can we hope that our knowledge and
underatanding of mythology- may be really
advuiLCOf], while ill-natured and Lll-itjannered.
fiod generally ill-founded criticism can only re-
tard the progress of wound knowledge, I know
I aball be told that there are ninny repetitions
in this volume, but L do nut see how that can
be avoided in a ml lection of essays which were
published from time to time. BeekLea, J hope,
it will be seen, that when the sa me ^austioii
is discussed again and again, it- was either
because some criticism had tu l*e answered, or
tec a use some stronger arguments had to lie
prodiiuad, I oars for the establishment of the
truth, so far as T can weft it ; I care very little
for any pergonal triumph. The Science of
Mythology has, as 1 firmly believe, a great
iu tu re before It, not- only in the narrow field
of mythology, but in the wider spheres of
religion and philosophy. Though I may not
live to see all my hopes fulfilled. I ain .satisfied
with wl i at has been achieved solar, and I ktlQw
that those who come after me will carry on the
work which I have to l-tjave unfinished, with

greater ability, with profounder learning, and
with far more eminent success.

QjLEWlP, Atf-Jr ii, i$nit

F. M. Mi

CO STENTS

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RAMA VACUA RESEARCH I33TITUTE.

TfilCHUH. COCHIN STATE.

ESSAYS ON

MTTHOLOtrT AND FOLK-LORE

COMPARATIVE MYTIOLOfiY

£lS5d,)

J^reiiroT- Dost thoci E03 till VtTV l.al] p!i.oo _ W^0p
Afifttiifei. Certainly I do.

Phcsdrai. Tiieye is tbera r acd tKe wind 3? nob

tug strong. and thate ia gn™ to eiL at, if we l\Wr. r to tic
rinWn.

AhflJfntlaJ. Lead qd tAfin I

PIveItca. Tall n:e, &?kTiitca— ifi it nob fro^ some place
here tRflp Eftv that, Hone-jw earned aivij 0 from ilia

Efjto* p

i5u£riij!** r Sri \ |- py (,11V.

Fk&droi- S-buqlrl, id net ba Fee-in this spot? Pol- tsic
v^uc-erE ses-m so lov-c-lp, pare, aod EL'&nupfn-erb, aui£
br if aiado girls to pky on J .3n bini.

No- it is t?TO Or Lhrmb Ftadin fertbar dawn ,
Trhcni yuO. [ra™ nrer to the temple? -cf Agra — and ttsecK
y en .fend, s 0 ii j 0 v3 L e-m. tn *]i*,r i>f itiioas.

Phtsdvas. t ivaa doe of thie. But tall mo, by

Zeua, O &ok.rs-t6A dcaL t?Jou bflips-o tbia myth t» bo
T-me?

&ikrfti(te. W oILj if 1 did mat beU&ro it, like Llie
people, I ahoald not ho so vary far n-rnag ; and 1 mi^Lt

Slit up. in ingnnhjn? thcoiy and a&J tiifci a g-ast of Eiftiau,

Lb±s Nortb'wi cul, cardcJ b=F down from tba m-nkn in the
noi^bbonpbood, wbih sbt playing with Jicr friend
TLI L-, IV, c

9

CQSJPJBvI.TlVg iLVTH.ftI.0-2T.

PhsnnOMfl.; £Ufud that, hnvLiijj (l[t3 ul thU manner, tibe
wng reported to !ihto besti oarrifld <dT by Boreas from
then::!:, Of from l-Hi» Area siws.1: — 'fuu iiiOL'O (?3CS 6bis EtOiy
also, ctmt sbr wllm carried u(T Ahhei than, aud aiftt froa 2-li is
iip:jr. As Lo jtiyBfilfj Pbadroa, I think thesa esplBrnstiixis,
l:h the w Lola, vary pdeEfianb; blit they rrrpJ:f9 a lap of
bLroii^ exlni tad hard work, ar.do man who, after nil, i*
not mn-ali to bo euricc^ if it w-dto only ^wthia, abac when ho
has set rigflit this 000 f.ihln. ho ia bound to do tho Seltob for
the form of th-e HippokootanrS, uml ap^Lti for that of the
CliliripriL And thru a host of mirk Iigth^b nrefa lo —
Ourgms. and PsuoaoL. and ma^pes of Other hcpc.oas Wi-nga,
jLEirl ah=rar(fic.iea of tnonEkuM) cnialurcB. And if n ms3 ’ l
not balierijig io 4hn 4 - 3 ; fa Um.ee of the^e cTT^aLuree, Eho-nSd
Ery to raprossnh e^cb se;wr:llij;£ fii the pruhablo osp -Tin.
(13-0, rlrjLlinij in ;i rt-agh kind -of philosophy, to 'would ng-
(yi ire jibiLiL.li'.uoo of loisiU'H Lf no lcert, ha.vti no cun-3 to pp&ma
fur these Lbiagss, and The reason, "my friendi is *ui*i that £
esnuot yet, McoL'd'hi^ to rhr? Uolphio Line,. Jfoow nJ^etli i,
aijd it sosmi to me ridioaioELB that a roan ftho doBB- hoc
jeh lmoiv this, sbo old braabJo oioiBcIf about what
pal- settnem liLcu. T h crcfoiro I those -i-mae,

And, he lie ring' what otLnr poopTr- believe about tb$m, f
roeAit&lo, ns I said just now, not oa thous , bat on myself
whether I be a EEonatcr mors- MiapLi-B&Ard unrl more savage
tLiLn Tfflion, or a tarar: tend situpbjr ■r-ran.tnre, enjoying by
tjti'irc 0. bfrEcrd and nu.2L-.-iL loL Bui while tto are talk-
ing, roy friojid — nan cot this the tree to which thou wwt
to toad us P

S'hwtrvt, TLiis is the very tree.

Tecs pussa^, fawn the Introduction of PJafo^e fi PEirc-
th'CHj, 1 jilts boim rroquontly qsaob&d in, order tt> shew
’.vhat the wiseet ftf the (irwka thought ftbout (Jj^
ra.tiomLI.ists of his dstyr There' were at AthaaE
then., be til lire have bfctn at uii t-imee and in l-.11

COMPARATIVE JUT TITO LOOT, 3

CiOUft'ti.iaaj men who no sens* for t.ho miraculous
awd Bup-ftrmituralj and who, -mlb out having tie
10 oral courage to deny nltajjedier what they Could
not bring tluHnflelTte to tellers, emfeavOUrtid to
tLnd some: pl&usiblo explanation hv which the asiOMd
legends. wiiiflb tradition hod haflded down to tbetu 7
h.iu 1 which tnul been, httlk>WBd by rsliyit>Li«. obser-
vances, and emotioned by rij* authority of the law,
might be brought into JiflJI&tiny with the dlotivtc? 0*’
reason and the laws of nature. That Sc kpi,te%
though himself aroused of heresy, did not entertain
a TOfy high opinion of these spucalntcirE — that, lie
thought tlitir explanations mure iaOrCdibEe and u.b-
Eurd than eren the most incredible iibsaTdibLfc& tf
Grout iny Ehol-ogy — nay, that at a ffirUwn period
of hifc life Isa treated such uttiGrrLpfciJ as impious,
ia clear from tbh and other paa^Lges of F&to and
SaoophoQ,

But if Mr- Giro to, in his classical wort on the
’"History of Greece/ ftTftile himself of thia and
esmiJiw poeeiigcs, in order to intradnc&f as it were,
yokr&tCJ himself among the histarians and critics of
Otrr own time — if be outlaw.. r9 to (Hike hiai bear
witneFS *to tie OBideEsnes^? of digging fbr a, suppoatsd
basis of truth * in the myths of the Greet world,, as
timlraa the ancient philosopher say more then, ho
really said. Olil’ ohjtct ill considering the myths
Of the Greets, Or my oU»?r nation of antiquity., ii so
different from thr.t of Sokmtee that the obJfiitlMia
which he nrgtd agMast in, is rationalising OOutCin-
porari=E canid hardly be a aid to apply to me. For
wlrnt is jrt that miLkea ng at thfi present duy ait Lao
queetuni of ttc origin of the -Greek myths 9 Why

4

COlLPA&iirrE ^[•CT^nT.rKiT,

do men study fiuoient history, acquire li, tnowlfidge
□fdeatl languages, J&Tid decipher illegible lnaoripHoM?
Wlm.t- iuspirua th-'.in with an interest not only 5n iliC
literature of Greeec and Koine, bub of fnicve.at Indio
arid Persia, of Egypt &nd BahylOoiii ? Why do bho
puerile and often repulsive legends of siwag* tr[bS£f
rivoo their tibLouflon and eng ago their thoughts.-'
Have we not hoeu H>hl that ilitri! is more diadem in
the ‘Times * shun in TLntytl idee f Are snot the novels
uf Waller Scott more amnsiutr than Apolledoro&?
Or the wnrkfl of Rio on more instru Otirfi than tha
OQWflOgony of the Purinas? Wkai, then, gives
life to tha tb inly of natiquity ? What compels ntn,
in tha initial of these busy times, hi sacrifice their
leisure to studies. njxpHJ Brily rsO unattractive and
useless:, if not ilia conviction that,, in order to obey
I, Lie DelpbaC comiK auduaenl’— iii order to know what
Man tJj we ought to kuow VltiQi -'ll ran, has bcrel? 1
Tlsia ia a view as foreign to ihe mind of EnlmiteE
M axy 0(f the principles of Inductive philosophy
fir which uu;u like Cclumbua, Leonardo do, Vinci,
Coueirnicus. Kepler, Eacon, and UaiiJeo regenmcBted
Hind mvigoniied the mtfcUectuiU life uf modern
EniOPS* If we grant in Sokffitea tliat the chief
ol^eet of pbEtoftophj is that loan should know hi en-
gulf, we ahjonld hardly consider hi$ mOfl nM of arriving
at £hia knowledge adequata to so high an oiuu To
bio mind iu&u was pre-eminently the individual,
without iniy rofmrenee to his being hue one maui-
JO station of a powEiTj or, slS he Height have said, of
an idea, l’caiLiod in and through h*u endless variety
of lunuau BDutsr He is ever seeking to Ealva the
m vsteiy of human nature byhtoofling over hie own

conriBiTm irtTAOLDtr'E - .

0

inltif], b_j- waLching the secret working* of the BOUl,
hy a.iLa3yPL3!^ the organs of knowledge, p„mi by trying
to determine their proper limits : and thns the lust
result Of hie philosophy ltaa, Llm.i he knew hut on#
tliiugi find thie was, Uilt lit knew nothin.^, Ta us.,
[ 00 .ii j?s an longer this? solitary toia^ complete in
Limaelif, and adf-rnffioieitt; ujlio to us is EL brother
among brothers, ji. member of £l cliuaS-, of a genuE, or
a kind, and therefore imiahigible only with roforortos
ia his equals. The fai'tli was Lin intelligible to the
ancients, bcuaaan looked upon aa a solitary being,
without a, peer in the whole anivorae j but it as-
sumed a new itud true sign menace as soon ue it rose
before the eyes of man as one of many planets, all
governed hy thn =aaic. lams* amt all. revolving around
tlit £fcitnti tOnt-ro. It ia the bilegei with the human
SOTllp and its nature viands before our mind :n quite
:l different light since man hua her a taught to know
a:irl sect iiniaolf as o member of onn great liiiuily
— 03 one of the myriads of wandering Sluts all
governed by the soma laws, and all revolting Ground
the same centre, and nit deriving their light from the
es me eourfl&t The history- of the world, o^ as it i?
Cidbd, '"Uniyexifti History/ has laid open, new avenues
of thought, and i£ bos enriched our language with
a word which never passed the lspa of Sokrates,
or Plato, C-r Aristotle — «iatsJti«dJ Whora the Greet
saw barbarian =5, we ^ee brethren ; whore the Greek
.saw herons and dera 3-gods, we aee Our parents and
ancestors ^ whore the Greek Saw nations [efess',
we sen mankind, toiling and salruring-, aepurahed by
oceans, divided by language, aod acvftrfcil by miticuml
J £w Jvjfii JPl^Fr v, fi?-

fi QjgtPJJlA'EITfl IIYTHOLOGY,

eujnitf — yet ePflEEODre tending, under a divine con-
trol, tcntanln tha £ laHHiaetit of that isjcrntahk: pur-
pose for which the world WM created, and UJ&U
placed It it, bcs-ring tba hmgti of God- History,
therefore, with ite dusty Ml 3 muul Bering pages, .'* h>
i 2 E a* monad a volume m "the bonk of nature. In
hath tv* mad, or we try to rea-d, the reilcn of Hie
laws euiJ thornghki of fl Divine Wisdom, As WO
acknOwledgO no longer iu nature the wnrmng uf
demons or tho nianifcfrtatioo of m evil principle., eo
7VO deny in history uu. atomistic conglomerate of
cluuioea, Or tie despotic rule of a mute fate. We
believe tlud; there is nothing' irrational in either
history or Hfifciwe, and that the human mind is.
called upon to read wnd to revere in both the mard-
fe&Utiona of a- Diejne Ponrer. Hence , «t*-u the moat
ancient and a battered pagea of traditions are dear
io n& r ony, dearer,, perhaps, than the more copious
chapters of modern time*. The history of those
distent sges and diaiant, men — apparently so foreign
to -ant- modem internals — aonuine? ft new oliftfflft as
?, son as wo know that it tells ua the story of oni' cwn
race, of our awn family — nay, -of trar own sdres.
Sometimes, when opening' a desk which we Lava not
upcm-d. for ehj yeans — whan looking over letters
which w# have sot read for maiiy years, t.tm rend ojt
for e on ie time with a cold mdiiferencB, and though
we see it is our Dim handwriting, and though we
incut with names omen familiar to our heart, yet wc
CJlc. hardly balEere that we wrote these, letters, that
tl'u £ol 6 those pan gs, thnfc we shared in those d slights,
till at last the past draws uesr aud we draw UHir to
tiho past and nur hemf giw<? warm, ftud we fcul

again as vca felt o f old, und. w* know that tbeae
letters were am' letters. It is thu BtLcno in rfEidiag
IDCient historji. At host itsetias tomBthing strange
and fondpa; bat tbe cnore Intense! y tts read, the
mOr-C onr thoughts are -eugageel, and OUT feolzngE
WA-med ; and the hiutory of thos-a fcn.oitnt mlin
becomes, aa Lh were, oUr own history — iliftlir ander-
iiiga our &n Seringa — 1 febsfce jyya oar joys- Without
this sy mmthy, history ls a dead. letter, and might si5
irell be burnt and forgotten; IvbitK, if it ia anon
enliveaci by this feeling, it a»pea-& net only to the
untiQTCU'ifm, bat bathe heart of every tna.n r

We Bud olirBykeE. on a atage on which many acts
] 1 3 ve been &fl;E;ed iMfcini uy, and where we ai^ suddenly
called to act our own pari, lb know the part which
we hare ro nt*L OBHOlvaa, w-J ought to know the chit'
racier o£ chose wliosa place Wu litke, We naturally
loolc bfwlr to the 6 &eaos Ou. which the unrtoin of the
past haa fallen, tor we believe ttifrt thoro ought to he
tree thought pervading the whole drama of mankind.
And here history stops in, und givi-s us the thread
which connect* the present with flid pim t. MimJ
scenftR f ic is trae, are lost beyond the hope of reco-
very } and the most Lltcrefltaag, the owning aeeaea
of the childhoad of th e human race, are kn nwn tn us
by small fragmenta ontr h Hut for this very reaaon
the Miti^uarian, if ho descries a relic of those early
^imaa, graapa it with the eagorneaa of it biographer
who- finds u □ Eipectedly acme scraps written bv hia
Eiero when jet a chilli — -Entirely himself,, and before
she shadows of life had aattled on hi a brtiwv In
waawrer laogua|*c it may be written, every line>
every word, is w oleoma, that bears ibo imprest of

OfliPARATTrE ULTTF&fifi&Tr

0

the early daya fir mankind. In oar museums wo
collect the rude fifty things nf our Vi-^rfi’d boyhood,
and we try to ^uata from tbeir colossi features tin)
thoughts uf Lint; iLiEad which fhey ones ruflafibetl ,
ilcjJT thiiigH arfi still nnotaUigibls ip ns,, and. 1.1 1 ft
b iurfigly phie lLUgtUga of antiquity rurorda but lltdi' of
Mi a rni ruTa 1 1 ulf-Unoon scions intentions. Tat mow and
mfirS iha image of man* :n whatever elimfl we meet
him, rises before ns. noble and pum finora tbs very
beginning) ereu Lia errors wa learn to un-.ierEt3.arl
— fi'yD his dreama wa begin fa interpret. As fur as
wo nan truce- hack the fonts tepa of man, even on the
lowest Bt.ra.ta of history., wn see that the divine gifir
of a sound a-nd sober iutelLoci belonged to blffi fr{?m
the rery first i and ths idea of a ham unity emerging
slowly from the depths of' an animal brutality can
never be maintained again in onr i>eni.j r y, Tha
earliest work nf lut '.vroagbt by the hujBiiu mind —
uiOK tMifiibut ibsn any literary document, Linu. prior
OVhin to tbfi firat wbiapeiduga of tradition— iha human
lunguafu:., forma an uninterrupted chain from the
Jlr&ti dawn of history down to our own timet. We
still sjpo&i tli.fi lan^nogo or the first ftoeetborfi of oar
moei ftnd this Lmguage f wi , Lh its wn n (l-erfll sfcmeture ^
beftVfl wv lies'* uguin at such gra-tmitona tbefirks, The
forniatioa of langsa^e, the wnapositifiB of l tcdSi the
gradual digCfiminiitiDii of meaiiiri-ge, tbu syBteniatifi
elaboration of gi'ainmaAieni forma — all this working
which we uan still see under tha eiirfafio of orn 1 own
speech f attests from the very 6rfit the presence of a
rational mind- -of an ariist ns greft b^ at fiusS h he his
work.

The period during which expressions weiie ccjnied

fiOMSAJUnVE ii ! ^ JiDLOlj- Y- 9

Tor the moat neiw^try ideas-— such ns pronouns, pru-
poiitin-iuij ii nmerals, nod i-he buua&hoLd words of x.he
simplest lEi'c- [i. period to which m* must assign the
Ii L'E-t beginnings of itfree Raid, as hardly ap-glntin-
atfre grammar — a gi-a.mm.ar not impressed -,tE th ftjujf
in diy EiLual or national peculiarities, yd Containing;
xte germs of all £ho Tmsaaku, well as Its Aryan
anil Semitic forma of speech— -this period forma tbs
first in the mialflcy of mm— the Breq ftt lnsat, to
which even the imneat aye of the antiquarian and
the philosopher <tan rsmii— and we call ii tjis R ki-
rn a tis. Fwind.

l’hia is succeeded by a. second period, during which
w& must eiippoae that v-A leas; Lwo fdiiailtea of lun-
guuge left the aim ply HgglutlnatJifej Or nOratidk sta^e
of giUmmur, and received, tmCt for tL.lI d that peculiar
inlpresfl oftbeir formative system. which wc a till find
in all the dude-eta aud uational idiuiay ecunpTi&ad
under the mines Of Swit ’-C £kud Ary nAf isS distin-
guished from tltO TtaotnuiA, iho Litter retaining to
a much letter period, and. in some inatamCeK to the
preedit day, that agglutinatlra reproduetiTQimaa
which has rendered 51. iruditiooul ind metamorphic
System of (Jfrfltmnftr impossible., or has JLt leant con-
siderably limited its extent. Hence wo do nut find
In the nomadic or T uranian languages scatte™! from
China to the PyrenOSa, from Cape Com or in , across
th« Caucfis i.l£, to Lapland, that sharp family likeness
which enables ua bn treat the Teutonic, del :ic, Sla-
TOilie, ItftlfCj ILeUsnic, Iranic, itod ladle languages
On one aide, and tb0 Arabian. Arammm, atd J&lebrcVf
dialects on tlie other, as mem Tsriaties cf two specific
fartna of speech, in which, at ju rery early period, and

10

COMFiRlTlTE 3CTIH0LO3T,

through indnancc!; decidedly political, if not; indivi-
dual fciiri person alj the II (Kiting elements of grammar
hnye been aTrertwi and ir-ade to fejssiitue an amalgam
jrpatedj inatusd of a merely egglotimitire,, character.
This second may Ijo GflUod -be Di-ikUit Fened
Now, after these two periods* but before the
appsoiance of the drat ttaoea of any national litera-
ture* tbera ib it period, reprc&enied ererywhere by
tic e-hidc chaTActeviatic feilinrte — & kind of Eocene
period commonly called the 'VyttaijhtffoiE or
tt^Nnc Age. It la a period in tine history of the
human mind. pCrhiLpS the moeo difficult to under-
stand, mnl the most likely to shake am* faith in tha
regular progress of Lho hutB&u intellect. We can
form u- tolcvibh 1 dear idea of tLe origin of language*
of the gradual Ihrmitlon cf cram in a r. and the nn-
avoidflhie divergence of dialects and languages, We
can Luiflerafnind again, the earlied coaL-entrations of
political KCleQePj the establishment of laws and
tfttfcbOttiS, (llib tt.0 first br-ginninga of religion smet
poetrT. Eat between Uie two there is a gulf which
it seems impossible ifcr any philosophy to bridge
over. We call It the tr^ikac Period, anrl we have
accustomed O-urfcelvee ftf belters that the tirfieka, foe
insLunrCj such S3 we find them repneaeated to us in
tbs Homeric pOCitlB, for advanced in the fine arte,
acquainted with the rsflnemcntB and comforce of
Tifk* SLLCli AS we BOS in tile palaces of Menelaoe ajid
AlkiuOC^, with public meetings and elaborate plead-
ing?, with tile miLtnro wisdom of a Nestor and the
running enterprise of uti Odyssena, with the dignity
at a- Helena and the loTelinpsE of a Ttffln.siksa, could
hare been pi-eceded by a race of men whose cliief

G01TFAT1ATIYE HTTHQLOGT,

II

aniiiBeiiftBiit wnaiiEtgd in inventing absurd tides about
j^uds and other nondescript being® — bL rftee of jnt'Ei,
la fact, cm whose tomb the bisftomjin Cfluld iji scnrlli-5
i>o better epigniEa than tbit on Bitto arid Phfiinih. 1
A-ltLoagh. later pEJSls mar bars given to some of
these fibbis ft, charm of beauty, and led ua to UDcep:
them os iBiagtafttive eompoalidoiis, it- ia irs; possible la
conceal tbe fact tliLif. tit k -frti by theniEulr-eB, u^d in
tliuir literal mean lei g, most of theEC Uncieafc myths
ftrc a.l>su n:j amft irrationflil, and fr&qilsntlj opposed
to the pi'Eviciples of thought, rellgioB, and morality,
’.vLEeti guide dl tbe ■Gne-cka as ewu a& they appear to
u.s \n Lbe twilight of irAditimiiLl history. By whom.
lUeu, were thus* stories LriTCntodF^-s Luries, wo most
sny ill once, similar in form nad diameter, whether
wo find them on Indian, Persian, Gi^ck, Italian.
EJavcuie* or Teutonic soil TVn.e Lbere u period of
temporary insamily, through which cbo human mifid
had to pass, and wy it a madness identically the
sawm 1(1 the Booth of India and in the nnrffc of Ice-
land"? 11 it impossible to beli-ic tliftt a, people who,
in thfl very infancy of thought, pioduuo-d man lilcs
Thales* Iltmt Icdtoti, cud PythiigCMLg, should Ltlt-b
CD iisEEtcd a£ idle talkers but a few cEsniurcKE before
rbtf iiEne of these EttgOS. Even L[ we tako only that
part of mythology which rtfera to religion, iei our
SHiian af the word, or the myths, which bear on tie
higbaat problems of philosophy — snoL ftS tto crea-
tion, tike rotation of man to God, life hi id death,
Tirtnc untl vice — myths generally tli o moat raodcni
m origin, WC find tint ersatbia small portion, which
mig-b-t be supposed to oontaJn aome unber id«i®, er
snme pure and sublime conceptions, I* unworthy of
■ AMo'tffa Ftfotina, Appuitf. :5t (sd- TmaMSfy I IL p, Ssft).

15 CQJCFr.llA’flVli MTCTJlOLO&r.

the liiceatoife of the Homeric po0t&, CT the Ionto
pbiloeophera. When ;he swineherd KumaoE, tMAS-
^□aintedj perhaps with the inlrioaW (system of the
Olympian mythology, SpGakt of tk* Deity, he speuJffl
like- one hi othhgItpj, ( Eat/ lie a ay a to Qdj®ffU^
’"and enjoy what in liEre s for God wiSJ grant he*
thin^Tj but another lie will refiiH* whatever be Will
in tiis mind,, for he cun da all thinga. 1 1 This, we msy
suppose, was ike language of the common people at
the time ol Homer, and it is simple and aubllEOe, if
oompju'ed vita whit has bapa supposed. OHO of t:1iq
grandest can cep lions of Greek mythology — that,
namely. where Zens, in order to assort ItLS ouraipo-
ienot tells; the g-nda that if tliuv Ujofc a- rope, and all
the gods and goddesses priced on om side, they
could not drag htw down from tli e hcitren to the
earth. $ ivliilpj if he chose, hn eo-uEd yrjJl t.hi em nil op,
acid suSpead ike earth and th& se-i from. ILo 3 i.Urnr) i t
of OtympoH. Whab le more ridEe flli/n& than iho
mj-t-hpLigical encocmt of thu Oreu-tion of r|i)e human
race by Tteoiudiou and FynLa thrHwiciJj stones
behind them 'a myth which owes its Origin to ft
mere pun on and JoiarJ., while wo can hardly
eipect, among paeans. a mare profaned cunfc&ptiOji
of the relation between God and maiij than the
saying of JlftmtleitoH, L Man are mortal puds, Had
goda are im aortal men.’ Let ns think of the times
which coold bear n. Lykurgos and a Salon — wbiflh
could found an Areopagos and the Olympic games,
and how cam we imagine that a few ge aerations

1 iJi iii r 4£S, *Friif r esl T^jrje T*CrJr

Ufa T ,'i;’ ■: u'“ : ' L 1 ■ L a e 1+ rb - b r ^nn T || 5' /in: pi.,

‘■'OttC n-rp i It*}' fiii**fiai. ^Ag jTosfVii.

MHrAHillTE 1ITTK0W07, 13-

lxJTurfi that tune, the highest notions of the Godhead
among the Greeks ware adequately ex-jreEsad tv the
atoiy of UrtTina maimed by Kronen— of KfOUOS
Mating his children, swallowing a stone, amd. vomiting
out alive hk whole pTO^Cy. Among the lowest
tribes of Africa, aod America we bftidljficd anything
more hideous and resulting. Ij la fct utling oar f?y«g
to the difficulties which stare U 3 in the face if we
siLYa like -dr. Groto, thnt this mythology mi ' ,t past
which waa never present 3 1 a ud it seems Unspheiny
to consider these fables uit the heathen world 96
corrupted ur.d misinterpreted fragments of a divine
vevelatmri once granted to the whole race of man-
kind, a view an Frequently' advocated be Christians
itwiries. These myths LaTfe befin milde by cian at
a certain period of tiatoiy. Tht-rc wa: On il^o which
produced these iuytiia s an half-wny between

the Dialectical Period, present! n.g the human ra <?0
gradually diverging Into cli ITeoGll t families und lan-
guages, and the Nations! Period, exhibiting to is*
she earliest troees of naiion&liiwd language, and a
nationaliMd litom'-Jie Id I i id in, Persia, Greece. Italy,
and Germany. The foot is there, and wo must Ctllscsr
explain it h Or admit hi the gradual growth of the
human mind, 03 in the foimarion of tbe fi-ifth, acme
violent rCYdln I Eoilr 7 which broke the regularity cf the
early slrsdlb of thought^ and convulsed the human
mind, hire Tolwtnoep nn-i ourtbquukes ilri&LQg from
some unknown Ciu&a below the surfac* of history.

&iueb, bowOvor, will be gained if, without being
drivtti to adopt so violent and repugn Ml t a- theory,
we arc able to account tD a marc intelligible manner
for the edition nf my Ui*, Their propagation nJvl

CCmPATUTIVE ItTIHOLOGT.

mbsiatenw m later times, though fctnmge :u rOiLBy
it -3 pa-cta, ia vet a nsnoh lasa intricate problem. The
tinman mi ml huS ati mboi'ti rewersnce ter the poat,
And tho ndigifftia piety of the nian flows from tt^e
same natural spring as Ibe fl I til piety of the child.
J’vcn chough the traditions of past ages huit appear
strange, wild, and flemntttiiea immoral nr impossible,
each gen eiation accept!) thorn* and fashiona them so
ihut they can i?5 homo with again, aad even made, to
ditiiloSii U- true and deeper meaning, -diny of the
natives of ludia, though versed in JSuropesn ackn.ee,
and imbued with the principles of a pure ELiburoi
theology, yet sow dawn and worship tbe imagon of
YishraU And 5iva. Tbc-y kuuw that these imapeBAl'6
hot atone ; they confess that them feelings ravalt
aguinat the impurities attributed to t.hesw; gods by
whit they uall their sacred writ id”* ; yet there are
hon-CEt Brahmans who will mmLntuhi that tb-fisc
aterka have n. deeper memiinj, chat inmor&hty
being inoompatible with a divine hohig, :l inyscery
ruust he iuppOaed to he oemnealed in those titne-
Jj allowed fables, a mystery which Hu inquiring and
reverent mind may ko[io to fathom. Nay, even
wLfire Chrmcinn. uiiMLOnarieR. hive been successful,
where the purity of the- Christian faith baa won the
heart of a nati-ne, and made the estews gan: uhaurd-
it]es of the PuifLnaa LcLsuppoftebje to him, the faith
of hit early childhood will still linger 011 and break
out nccnHio nally in unguarded t^pre&siona, it smreral
of the my tli 3- of antiquity linve crtpL "nto the le-
gends of the Church of Home. 1 TYo find teaquent
indications in ancient history that tho Greeks them-

1 Sit -Grinni'a ratttdlieHfln to >!fl gresO ra Timflanifc
Jf/y., BKcucti edition, IS 44, 3>. X*iL, Thin wotIc Lij liralj- t*oU (Jana-

COJIPiiil'ITi: JIFIEOLMTr

15

seSces weeo tbM-kflil fcy tb .0 atones told of their gods ;
yet as eVuu jn tnr own Limes faith, with moat men ]s
net faith ifi fled or ell tooth, but faitb in the fii. j tin
Hi' others, W* tuny nnderitaad why &fCh toon like
were unwilling torenour.ee their belief in
what had been bclicwod by tdieir fathers, A$! their
idea of the Godhead bocaiuR purer, they Celt tlmE the
idea of T'Mjfi'K’li iVi'i , iri Yulved in the idf-a of £ diyina
being, eiduded the pcsiubi] iiy of iuTnot&I goda.
FlPdar, lie pointed oul by CUfriad ilidlet , 1 changes
atfehy mjtha because they »ra nub irt li&j'uiony with
Lin purer concapiaona of the dlgasity of gods and
hemes 5 and, beca-uae, fioeordifig to Ills Opiniots, they
nuist ho faJae. Plato 1 argues itt n similar spirit,
wb&li he maminefl the differ t tinditto-tft about
JUtOft, 4ml iu Llib * fiyrapgusnrei * we see how each
speaker maintHloa tbit myth of fhofS to bn tins only
true o me which arfitJQE tost w ith hi s otvn id eis of ttc
nature Of this god — Plnr>d™s a ealliug Isius the oldest,
Agii tho;. the youngest oi ibe gode : yet each appeal-
ing to the authority of an ancient myth- Tbuii, men
who had aa clear a conception of the omnipotence
arnl oiwuprceenca of & saui'ems God as □ aturii L reli-
gion tau repeal, still called him Ziuis, fotget.tiug the
adulterer and parricide : —

Ztuc '£a.-e fitxau, iiic i' rt sii-ra r/mrAi,

Ttreil lata English, by Mr. BrtaUj'taruii fBuonectKhelrv fi; Allsri,
IBiOJ.

6 0. MIlIIi’t'sj csrsUrcnl -work .PfiaiijumMriii tt iffttfP trUti*-

icA-iriii-;-. l<: .Vn'-itlK i r, lS£f, ix SI.

* Fhenti-irt, 342 JK.

* Syin^r. ltfi C. aCrur Apohr/iiTVi fl 'Eji us iv tuTi

tTwir Ttlf $l?TqTTF 5r fUT^TTmU nl-riji

iiWilf' ]{li* JL. (’(TTi 31 UI TftiiVib' ■epftrth' ^|i|N wrvrllfDF fr jp,.

St 'na^rpL,

IG

COHPiJt-A.'m'K airTUOLOOT,

* Wens is Ui« be sfLD l)i.n g, Sen? the middle ; Out of £qus

all things have Wen made ; 5

— un 0 ijiLio. Hat, but an old one, if, as Nt. Crrut-"
BUppoaea, FI o-tdadJ tided to it' Poets, ng-ain, whc felt
in their hearfe (hit true emotion of pmyoi> a Tstni-
inof after di^irua- kelp and prOtedLLon, ST-i LI Hpoko of
ileus, forgetting that ilI Ont time Zens himself ^ins
vauqnLHhed. by Titan, and bad to bs delivered by
Herns se, 1 jEechvlm; 5 SEjya t 1 Zeug, whoever h» id, if
thin bE tbs raniii fey whiftb be [oven to hj callEd — by
this moi« I address bi m . Jf u r, poti dei-intj on ell 1 kings
except Zona. I caur.ot bell r? he flier l may truly cast
ol!f the ifJ.o harden from my thought 1

No, tlse- preBBarvitioai of these tnythie names, the
long life of those fubics, imd llier s^ti dying (be rrdi-
g-iouB, poetical, and morel n n Lii of e OCOOCdiiig gene-
ratiopa, though stmnje and startling, is not tire retil
■iiHiculiy. The psusk hay 3L? ehitina, fund tradition
IraB n powerful friend in Ikn^iiujjeL Wo etill apGitlt
of die Him rising nr.d setting, ot'rainbovrg, of thunder -
holis, Swrampa language has sanctioned thuse Oiptes-

■ LoLesk;, $ 39 , sf-^

?j,\i 7iA% imiiM, j.is Jl r ,’r Tiwa rtTu.tTi.

o.:ri ]?p£,lJtrt ffrrcZt .VytAology, _ Ei ± , p. OJj ZfcUer t PAf&u^lHs <L:
irrizahzii, p. AS.

; JjHtfed , 1 , U. i, Ototfl, X- S, p. 4 ,

1 T tflT5 -.lir lex!, became it luu been tnuflutcd Lt na u_.x.;. r dil

fejSnl Tra^s:

"cllj, ifi/TJJ *»t h fiTilv, li *Af uu-

ni- v i'. hekAti,ii.»p^

■TviltiS riK TfVf*r?i-rrr
n lv. Sjfn Iff ir:LL->,.

■nSiv 1 ^TCTarfjj^FVGS,

i ih, *f IfA jicnxy imj ^(hjtiTij A^I'hi

J[pft jS*Al&' i ■i1“(iilRT.

COM PAHA L IVE MtTElOLMY.

1?

skua. We use theiu, tbougli wc do not believe in
them, The diflfoutiy is how at Jirst the bumaEnnind
jtus led to B-utls smagimn.Ers — how the namea nod ialts
ir.rose, and unless th:& cpie&tloLi can be answered* our
belief in n regular and conEisteut progrtsa nr the
Tmtn&a intellect, through nil t™Cs ;md id all coun-
tries, mast be gives up as n. fnise theory.

Nor can it bo s;Lid thii.t we knrtw mbsointefy nothing
rtf tills period Coring which the ns jet undivided
Aryan natiuna — for it is chiefly of them that we tite
now sneaking — formed their myths, Even if we
only <ie deep shadow which lies 0(1 tilt Greek mi tin
from the very beginning of if.* political and literary
Jmtory, we should he ah It to infer from it something
rtf ike roa! character of that ft£u VfbieEi mu fit have
preceded the earliest! dawn of the Put’oiin.! liteiauure
of Greece. 0 [fried Miller, 1 though Lie was unac-
quainted with thu new light, which CotupaviLtive Phi-
lology has shod OLi Lhi* primitive Aryan period j HljI :
E The mythic form oJ' e?pre&4ou which cbungO.-j tilL
heings into persons, h-TI reUtiona into action s, is some-
thing bo peculiar that, wo must admit foe its growth
a distinct period in tho emlmtiou of a people.' But.
Comparative Philology lias since brought Lhii whole
period within the pale rtf documentary hi story. It
lipjs pLaoed in Qtlr liSI nu6 0 telescope tif such power
tbit whore formerly we could ace but nobolcus cknula
we now discover distinct forms ilucL outlines j, nay,
it has given US what we- may call ctmfo tupurBiry evi-
dence, ozhihitiBg to us the atate of thought* langnugo,
religion, c.Eid civilisation at a. period when Sanskrit
WAS not vet Sanskrit, Greek mot yet Creek;, but when
i PtvL Jfyta. p. 75.

D

TOT., TV.

1H

0 OHr A RAT IT JB HTTROLOOY.

Ixiih, together with La^in, Kerman, and othe* Aryan
dialael*, iziated aa- jet &a one undivided language, in
L2: c-' sumo maimer tl? Franck,. Ilftliin, and Spanish
rmiy be said to have ttt one to rue existed *9 one im-
dFfidai] language, in the form of Latin.

This will require a short esplauation. If wo liiitw
nettling Of Hit uiktoimfi of Latin ; if fill hwtnriftal
djocunaaiita prerijDQs tn tht; fifteenth Matury bad been
lost r if triidition. Qven wore ailcnt us to the former
Ozistcncft cf a Homan empire, a mere comparison. of
the sin JKomacioa diulR/ts would finable ua to say that
at tome time there roust Imre been a tinging* irons
which all these modern dialects tierivfd their Origin
in common ; for without this auppcisUitm it waEild
lie impossible to peotrant for the facts exhibited In'
thuEa iinlwta- Hot. na loot at the ELUiiliary verb.
We find i

1 tiir.ii.

H'nJurLl i. i

niu'ilan.

iipiaullh.

PnriMMULtii

hwk,

1 a=,r

■HP

mm {(irat]

PII".

*“7

■au

mb

711311 i'JL !

ntd

IP

□E

CFOi

lE

HflCjl

A

6 1 ’fcloj

d

a

ht

at

\V F Hf :

funtuna

4»n

pnmw

Zulus:

CLuiu

E iuLTkil

i3>Lt

■all

Ull.

fMA 4jfc*nQ

TClfrJ 1TB :

■un:-

ajnl

rtn r-fiul

33 EL

3D

uni

It -a elsar, even from a short eonaidam-tiou of
ihoRP! for mg, first, that all are lout vnrietEca of one
cororoi-m type ; secondly, that it 33 l ur’.pC-^^i bi y to COil-
si ler &uy one of rtete hs parted EgHli? tiis the original
from which the others had been borroiv&d. To this
ere may a (1(1 T thirdly, that in nonfl of tho kngutigiiH
to which these verbal forma belong, do we find the
elements of which they con Id litive boou cumpDeed.
If wa find such forma re j’wi nime. wn can -cap lain
them, by a mere reftrenee to the giu.mra&sEtxiI mate-
rittla which IVeEich lia-i sti ll &li ita eoirjniiLnd, and the

COMPARATIVE UTTadJO&T.

19

Sftrae may be said even of compounds like
i o, jit-ntHier-aii T have U' love, l ahull lovo. Bftl- a
ehangfi from jc £\ tia ta ti; ^ a l oespLic&ble by the
light of French grammar, These forma could pot
have grown , w CO e pffikk, on Pre nc I; aoi3 s b '.it. urn st have
bsa-Ti Iteubderl rti>wr,< &5 relica f l'dtti il- fanner period —
mart hare existed in aom# language unlccEdent to

any of the Romance dialects, iSow, iortniULtely, in

this case, wc are isot left to ft mere inference, but fis
we ynsaeas the Latin verb, we rail prove Low by
phone-tic corruption. uud by mistaken analogies, every
one cf th-fi elx paradigms is bat a national meta-
in orphoELE of tbs Latin origin ilI.

I jet us now look at another set. of paradigms :

aijittei;.. TJ[-nl»uli.i,. £, ml. B*H4. OUS-tr, LitSx. Ooi' i - -. Jenei.

1 ! Jl !

twA

■sfiTfil

nil us 1

J-KITlE

siim

is

m

Th to nr 1 ;

t#

rrfl

■ai

Ini

Jt*

«■

h

Vfl

JlLft:

tod

«ti

dJl!

rarE

jrtlH

feat

[il

t

wt : ►.-m-.t ;■ it* -

■V.T*a

PIVTI

i ■

■■ ■

P"

■ i

■iv

■■

Eui (t-, l-I Lrt : ’MiLiS

tttA

rtl.j 7

Hiixrur

JiStk

+B

rljiii

„

nra ;

.eta

ycbi

■i r

rr

ii

Vo Itfl !

into

-.-Ull

lirriV’l

7«Cl3

fiiTHil]

EljQED

SSCllj

“l’rn m:

'■CM

hIi

ita

Jrvd

T=tu

■vtul

ll^llL

ftn

Tju/ Ull

oir.rj

iAtU.I

TjZntl

Jr-ii

mni.

*TjO

■rti

TVoiii a I'.n-ef.il eopsidcratEon of these forma, we
oUghi to draw exactly the same comdusicns t first,
That nil are but Tnrieties of on* Common tyjie ■
eecmidly, that it is impoasible to oo-OEidci 1 any o-f tbem
aa the original from which the Cfthsns hare been bor*
i-0fwed ; Baud thirdly, that, lero stgim, uOuO of tltt
litngnegcH in vlsSc-h these verbal forma occur, pofscsaos
the grammatical materials out of ■v' i li iuJU. Such forms
could have bifCn frUMeil. That Sanskrit cutmofe be
taken os the original fropnrhich blithe reei m'orc
derived fail opinion held by many EohnlriTs) ig clear,
if t vo Etc that Greek Isas, in several instances, p!*o-

£0 COHPAIUTIYE MYTHyLUOT*

FSei-?ed a IDWf JM-icijllYfr, or, 71£ lL IE- tailed., more
nrgiyniHi form than Sanskrit- ’Ev-jih Cannot bfl de-
rived hum the Sanskrit- $tnai$ r because. sin as hai lost
the radical a, which Gr*dc lliia prCjstTTtd, the root
being as-, -to be* ih.* tannin atipri m as, we, IN' or tan
Greek lie fired upon ta the mart- priujitiro language
from which the others wen; dented, for nob e?en
Latin could be cable j the daughter of Greek,. fhelan,-
j^nasQ of Emne Staving preserved some forma wore
primitive than 0 reek ; for instance, fftatd instead of
Jur i Or iucTt or tlVv Here Greek baa lost the radical
a s altogether, hrrt standing' instead of sefb-.-i, wlnlo
Latin lias nt least, like Sanskrit, prsaoLTed. the radical
s in $khI! = Sanskrit santi.

Hence* all these d:oiecta point to House more an-
cient langnaga which was to them wba-t Latin wue
t:o the Romance dialects, Only that ftt tfsac early
period there- was no UieruLuce to preserve to da any
remnante of that moUier-tongae 11 mt died, in giviag
birth to the modern Aryan dialects, such at Sanskrit,
He rid, Greek* Letts, Gotlito, Slavonic, and Otitic,
Tat, if there is Mir troth ilj inductive rt uMaung, Hint
langn&go was once n> living language spoken in A-ln,
by a small tribe, nay, oiigcjEictJJy by a smell family
living- under one end the eame j oof T as the language
of Comnena, Cervaatea, Voltaire, and Imnt* woe.
onno Epokcn by a few peasants who had built their
huts u u the Seven Bills near the Tibm. If we ™,
pare the two tables of paradigms, the cole cideneas
between the language of the Veda and the dialect
tpolren at the peasant day by the Lithuanian recruit at
Beilin a^e greater by far than those between IYcdcJs
and Italian 5 and. after Bopp ? a 'OomparaLivc OffttWr

■cAUFiRil’lTE JITTBOLMT, 2t

TO,Lr s b&S been coinplctedj St vdl bs sCOa clearly that
nil the essential terras of gram triu-r bad bocu iuLly
framed and established before ibe first, semratirrti of
the Aryan family hook plmee.

Utlt wo may Lara ranch more of i(:c LHtellastUfll
of' the primEti7rr and Undivided family of the
Aryan mfcifia!', if ure ijsr t.im rnnieriils which Ootft-
paretwe HaMu^y laa placed kt u-jr dispc-ssd ] iitsd.,
here again., the Romanes languages will toach us the
spell bj wliith irt muy hope to> ope a the ffircliiFfea qf
the meat ancient history af the Arjyuj race. If-rra
find in all the Kounineu (LEaleeig a word like the
,1'reaC-h poni, the I (Allan the Spanish ptumt-,.

the TViillaahian ideubic&iiy the same in all, after
ttiiihin^ aUuwRJMjq for tLuKC peculiarities which give
£0 C&eh dialect ite nn,tional clmraetsiv we have a, right
to 3B7 tas_t jit™, the name for frn'dtfc, was knewn
fro/lflr; these loiigaagea separated, iLrid that, thera-
fore, the art of building bridge lanat hive been
known cl the sume time. We qoqld usset-b, even if
■vLij knew nothing of Latin and cf Rotfte, that pre-
vious &t Itmstj to the tenth centarr, books hrenri,
wine, houses VtIIl^jus, towns, Ioitki*^ and giLtea, itc-,
were Irao wn to tboao people, whoever they were, from
whoag isAgnugie the modern dialects of Sunthei'n
JtkJFOpo (ire derived. It je true, wO should not be
ftblo to draw n- very perfect psetrm! of the mtfilleeteiud
Etftte of the Roman people ir wc were obliged to
oOriairnefc their history from Eueli flCknty materials
ori[y ; i?£t w c should be able to prope that there really
was such a people, au^, in lb? absence of any other
mforajation, even a few casual glimpse* of their
work in life would be welcome,-

22 fcCULPA&^TZYE HTTltUiWT*

flist, though ™& might safely tie* this Jliotliod
positively, only takiti ff WO to avoid foreign toriaS, we
could not invert it onse it negatively. Bocai^e
Cdoh of tli* Jiuioauee dialers has ;t different imwe
for* ceiia-in object*!, it flues not follow that the objfrCts
themselves wcm uniiiwn to the ancestors- g-f the
Romance nations. Paper wus known (it Pome, ye*
it ifj called naria in Ital ]an 3 pojritT in French.

No^j. as we know nothing of 111* Aryan race
before it was broken up into different n&Uon ai ties,
such us IiiJian, Gorman, Grech,, jRonjSlii, yluvnnic.
To atonic, nnfl Celtic, ibia motliOd of untiring J&ti-
gnlge itieSf till the history of oueient tiinea wj]J
hucome of great v&lye, bflcnuaa it will give a cha-
meter of IhBtorical n=ality to a poriod in tie history
af the Lmnaia race tlie very oxiEtocce of wilieik land
bmn doubted, to a period that had boon allied £ a
peEt that TV&a never present/ Wo must not expect
a complete history of civilisation, eihi biting in full
detail a pietUre 03 the timeE whan “ha luiignitge of
ldomer and of the Vofln. bad not yet been fonnud.
Bat we ahull fuel by BOme small lint Bignifinant
tpaits the real presence of that early period in
the history til the kumari mruirl — a period whioh, fer
reasons that will be clearer hereafter., wa identify
with the dfyiftnprW.r.

Euutfit &md, Oi**fc. EiilIii. Oi>:LjIu. SIuvhjI^ Iphb.

F^hcti filly pltjr «rfji praUr jcJiLt

Milttor? IMSIT WJT P\TVP i!«ST .I Lflltl (RED. m'.VE? UOpIl'r

lir.Ti.u-: liitil'LU Miu [j^i^nlnrfr brMtec iHiUrl bri:hir

Saur: ««nu rjisju , . IMP 6 ’lilMjr IIMlI LU

iy>r^:s*j t:-I'jP :"ftP Jj^llilV hr«rv — $*nlwsr f Li-,* ,) <S::VtJl

The- mere fact thnb Lhfi an-niEi Cor /k (her,
bro^LEf, sifter, and deeughtrr mo the sjuun.e- Ln nuSst

dMEPASAHTB aTTHUT.or-T- S>3

or' the Aryan lungo age^ night nfc hrsi si^!b c anem
of immaterial aignidcajice; vet* even those wards
arufullof import. That Lli,e isliniO oFfathtT wjl* coin-ed
nfc thiit. early period, sLottf: tbwb ^h£ father acknow-
ledged tliQ offspring d£ Lia with els bis o^n , fur thus
ordy kid Li u rig kt to claim this tibe of fattier.
JWftcr :& deriretf from a root Pa. which mea.iva, nub h>
begot, but to protect, to support, to nourish. The
fiLtliftl' isppogeuitorjWas GaiEad iu Sanskrit g unit dr,
hut Eta protector and finpparter Of his offspring hi
c?i .3 Iff! pit&r. Hence, in the Vein tiLfise two
uftiaea are oaed together, in order to express the fiilS
irlea pf father. ;fhP 3 tlLe poet sura (L HJ4, 33): —

Dy-ai a mu pLtA jjuui io,

Jo{iH)a met pater janitor,

7c !c t.uau na*jty> yfvtsdfi.

In a similar manner mil tar, mother, is joined,
with ^u-nitri, q't’-Jiiirii [St. ITT. 4-3, 2 ). which show*
that the word mAtfer tnU-St SOOn haYi hist its etyxin-
logioaL tneaniyg, and hiro hueoiofl an expression of
respect m id en&ea mien t, A mu ng th& earlio at Aryans .
miter liad the mefuiimg ol! maker, from. Mi, to
fashion ; aud in, this souse, and with the sime accent
ns the Greek niltzr., notyot determined by a

remaniuift affix, ic is used in the Vedft Its £) m&S&ulLni!,
TIjus we read, for higtanoe,. Tlv. YTTT. 4], 4;^-

61 U nisitA pdrryirai p&ddn>.

* Tfe, Yamraa [UrumcaJ, lathe makur of the pld pjioef

Xow, it should be ohHerrad, that m&fcsr, well
ag pi tar* is bat one out of many names liy which
thi id si of father and mother might have boon ex-

24 COlirAEATITB ^TTHOLOeif.

j)reF=aed. JCvC-ti if wc confined crarBalTftft in tie rwr.
Pa. and tok the grating of support to till? offsprh ye-
ns the roost cfiarMterirtw atcribcie of facies’, many
words ixiigbt Jw.ve Ijeeti r anf J actually -mere! formed,,
all equally lit t.0 b&COIHe, &o to Eny,t£iQ proper names
of fctber, la Sanskrit, protector caa IbO dpreuabd
not only by Pi, followed by the derlvativCi SflfljX tar,
bat by p Ada* pi-ink a, piV-yu, all -c caning protector.
The fact that out of many possible forms* One only
iaa bean admitted into nil the Aryan diction&ri pp-^
shows that there mii hate been something ltJie a
traditional usage in language long before tlio neuiliu-
tion of tbs Aryan family took place. BEBtdct, there
Tifre other roots from ■which the name of father
might have been formed, Fimh aa @Aa* from which
wo li ttvc ; v a e) [ (■ ii. i', j_r i‘- , L-j- l b a.'- ;i rjiptTvffi; or Tae, from
which thft tri^pjr 'ruicji^i or Pah, from which the
J. lit, in par™; not to men thro m&ny otter names
equally applicable to ejfpreas Rome prom meat attri-
bute of ft father iii hi? relar-ioi; t-0 tia children. If
tad i Aryan dialect had formed its own name for
father, JVotn one of the many n&otj which all the
Aryan, dialects ishuro in common, wo should be able
to say r.hftt r.Vro was ft radical community between
ill these Iwgmgefl; bat we aho&ld sever succeed
in proving, what is most essential, their historical
community, or their ditetgenea Horn one language
which bad already acquired a decided iiiom&tic con-
sfjrtency.

It inppens, howeveTj ctcu with tJi-sae, the most
essential ienus of *□ indpieni clyfliaatiou, that *nc
or the other of the Aryan dialects hss lost the
ancient expression, itid replaced it by a new one.
The co mm on Aryan names for brothoi 1 hud & is ter, for

COMPARATIVE KTTEOLOCTi 2H

jnstince, do r.&t occur In Greet, where brother iiiuJ
sister are cnEed dBi Xtpot :uidl I'o con nj ode

fr-OiJi til lh- tlwh at the tiQse vlier, the G reels sta irei'J
ti-ora thuir Aryan koine, tbo nines of brother and
sister bind UOt yet- been fVamed, woudd be a imitate.
We ti&ve no reason to suppose that ike G-ngeka were
tlifc Brat (o Iriis'd^ aisd, if wc End ifcafc nations like
ike Teutonia or Celtic, who could have had no
eonliiict with the natives Of India after the firsc
sCpinltion Iutd taken plae*, Ehuro tbii name of
brother in cCmranB with SkOakrii, it is as curtain
th&i this uiinr e listed in ttn primitive Aryan lan-
guage afl the occurrence of the same word in Waia-
chliia: mid PbrtU£Ufl&Q wOnid prove its Latin Origin,
though na trace of it Ciiet-cd in any of utre ether
HoaianCe dialects, Ifo doubt, tEic growth of Inn-
^nogu ia govern eil by inninitabia laws, but ths
infloenefi of accident Is marc considerable here than
in inry odnsv branch o: natural science; and though
m this it is poasiblft bo find a principle which
determines 4 be accidental loan* of the ancient namra
fur brother arid ukber in Greek, yet ihia ia not the
Casa always, mud wo shn.IL frequently find that ono
or the ether Aryan dialect does not exhibit a torm
which, on the strength of out general argument, WU
shall feel jnslidud :n ascribing to the most fldifiionfc
period oi Aryan speech.

The LuUtini.l relation between brother smd sister
li^-d been hallowed at that early period., and it had
been sjujetLoned by names which, bad. become tradi-
tional before tka Aryan, family broke np into dil-
tereilt colonies. Thu original meaning of bhr4tur
1 S$ij .‘foiwr,. OtiL IS51, p. S!?0.

2G OOMFAUAtEYll aYTUULfiQY.

acornsi to nte to- ho-rfi been ho who carrier or arista;
of ETitSlifj ahe who p!.ettaes ov consults — svitati
□lUUUing in Sanskrit joy or happiness.

la in hi tar, again, ve diul a name which. must
Etii.viFi become tradition a] Inn? be tore tho aoraamtion
took pluce. ft is a name idemtkally r-he same in all
the dialects, etcept Latin, mud yet Sanskrit alone

COllld Vi art preserved a eOTVScioaHneK of its appella-
ii?e cower. Hu hi bar* m Pit/esaor Lassen wan the
first to show, is derived from Dinr. n root which in
Sar skrit mean 3 to tnillz. Thin etym ology is heSter rit an
than from taugp , a (dull), for the original meaning of dfuA
was to milk and to yield snLik. Th-j ctnsc of yielding
or boing useful ie general, i. c l&te-r and more restricted,
Thi(i uumo of milkmaid, givoFL to t’-.e daughter of tlm
ho nee, opens before coir eyes a. 1 i rxla icyli of tho pootteui
and pus Corn] life of tho early Aryan e. On-s of iho few
thingr- by which rite diiigb ter. before alio vyils married.,
might make Jvemlf useful in 4 nomadic household, wna
the milkine of too caule, and it disekaes a kind of
dr litany and humour, eve i ' n tilt rudest stakiaf society,
if we imsgino a fuLknr culling his daughter iiis little
milkmaid, rather than sue ft, his begotten, or
the suckling. Tills 1 meaning.* h.0weY*r, must hare
been forgotten long before the A ryaut separated.
Duhitar waa then ae lunger a nickname, hut it had
become a technical term, or t an to gay, eke proper
name of a- daughter. Tint many word n mere ftrrmgd
in blm same spirit, iLod bhai they wec*o applicable
only during a nomadic atatg of life, we &li nil harg
frtfliienfc opportunity of seeing, 03 V-i ££■ Oil* tfut
as the transition of words of such special meaning
LnLu general terme, deprived of all etymological

COMTAJIA^IVE HTTEfflUMT. 2T

vitality' may aeeai strange, tve may as; well give

OnnC ft few ftmiJogQiig flaKCa where, behind expraaionfi.
of the most gonern] ciirrOncy, we etui discover, by
mewls of stym-DW, lEiis pec’riifti,' baitpjrujnd ofth&
flJicisnL nomad l:fe of tlifl Aryan nations. The very
word pwuli&v in.xj serve os nn itlittnLtitm* taken
from more- modern lirnea. Fecntiftlr cuw means
BSOgubir, ttskra^iafLiry, bat origin a 1.1 j it meant wlmt
was private, i.e. not CQtnMjCaij property; being derived
from jjflcaXiaMiL W&w, the Latin pceafijurc stands
fur jpccHiJtttJTt [Jike eoJwiJrora fur tenaitl ium } ; and
being derived from peciwi it, it expressed

originally vrkn.t we should dll cadtle fttid CtiiLcto].
Cuttle constiyr4mg the ehiwc personal property of
agricritoint people, Wft may well undoLliltand Law
peculiar, uieaniog oiiifrnniiy what, refers to ones own
property, auna to mcaji not-common. and nt last, in
Qiar msltra eonVfllBation, passed into thfl meaning ci
strange. T noOd hurdly mention tha wdll-lmown
tty moE^gj? C f j+whthL, which being dffldtod from the
word, j?ccu, and therefore sigc.ifjirsg fiocfita,
took gradually the meaning of money, in the Hune
nfin.iwr as tbo Angio-Saion /tgjii T the Gornifla Vuk,
■oait-l e (and otipiuLlly, according 1 to Grimm^s lav*, the
eftOlt WOrd as pccti), received iri t.ho oWi-Fie of tinie
the actsis of ft pecuniary remunerations a fee r L WMi
takes place in modem languages, and, as it were,
undtir our own eyes, must not BUrprie* US in nsura
distant ages. Nox, the most useful eftttlo lave
always been the ox and tbe OOW, and they fe&ftm
to ha™ constituted the chief riefcos and the most
important means of subsistence among the Aryan
1 Loud Jf-eOV-B, A Gkvtrt ai iiwwieriBf PSilatyg, liJTA, p. 11*

3S M3SPAS\TMrIJ MTTEOLOOT*

nation i. On and osw are ended in Sanskrit

pi Hr. r-IVvsl y n which is the SfLtluj word fl* the Old

High-German tw T plWrcAttfm,, and ivifeiia change
from the gattuiul to the ]a,bi;il inedin, Lhe classical
i ! fl-ir E d f3oet t and Sue, &ouce, Some of the SlCiTGnlc
languages film lure pr&a erred a fair traces of this
aficinnt mircwa e for LTkattLsc^-, the Lettish jj&ws, CCr.v ;
the 31 Ft v Diiio jjcjiyacfo, a hardi SErvlnu ysyecfav,. a
COW-hewl, Prom 0nvt, w« h&TC in Greek 0£iuitfa\4M,
which SLsQOLn t originally a gum-hard ; bm: in thu verb
j2airjto\i<i) l the fiaeDLiiing of tending court has be*n
absorbed l>v the move general c-an of tending oattlif.
]iaj t it it used in n mefophnrloaJ flense, fu rh og £\Tr-i<ri
$w*o\ovfUUi I ifecd TBJBftlf on TittEl hopes. Tt is u.ierl
w'tlx regard tu homes, and thus me hud for horse-
lierd, originally il com -hard of horses,

—an r'lpitseion which we can only compare to San-
skrit reynga, m&anLBg a yoke of 0 -ien, hot, after-
wards any pairs ao that a pair of o^en wnld he
called gO-gG-ynga. Thus, in Sftnsk it, £ 0 -pa mean a
crriginally a oow-Lnrd, but ii soon loses this Fjpepi lie
meaning,, and is nttd fur the taeew of a cow-pe», a
herdsman, and at last, like the Greek Jurtw,

fer a king- From ^upA a new -verb fe formed ,
gopnratij and in it nil traces of its original ejearjing
are obliterated ; it m-nitiE, e Em ply to protect. As
Cfopa meant S com -tun'd, go-ira, in Snn&lirrt, wile
originally a hurdle, and meant ili'e enclosure by
which 0 herd WftS protected against this vCa, and kept
from atr&ying. Gotra, howevE^ liat almnst entirely
lost its ety motoghjfil power in the later Sanskrit,
where, the feminine only, gotri, preserres the mean-
ing nf a hct&of kine. In ancient timeo, when mogfc